from wake-up-call-for-music-execs department
One of the arguments made by many people regarding an alternative explanation for declining music sales is that today’s music just isn’t that good. Many people overlooked this, however, as the typical snobbery of people who still think their generation’s music was better than the crap on the radio today. Well, now it seems even a lot of kids today agree that the music of decades past was much better than what’s on the radio these days – and part of how they understand that is experiencing these “classic” songs by downloading them online. They get their first taste of a band they love today by mentioning their influences – and they also get plenty of hints from their parents, a shocking idea for those of an older generation who made sure that everything they listened to was exactly what their parents does not have to like. Read the article, though, and see how many record executives are positively amazed that today’s kids are actually sophisticated enough to know that the music they’re pushing just isn’t very good. Another interesting tidbit in the article addresses some of the concerns some have that all this downloading will “unbundle” the album by tricking kids into downloading just one song. Instead, children point out that old albums are full of good songs, so they want the full albums. It’s only when the albums are full of filler that people are willing to unbundle the album and just take a few singles.
