Music is dead. Let's move on to pogs

[Stoney Mason]

2014 will mark the first year since its inception in 1976 that no artist’s album will be certified as platinum from sales. The award is given by the RIAA to mark one million units sold, and with only a few weeks remaining in the year, no album is even remotely close to making the threshold.

The two records nearest the magic number are Beyonce’s self-titled album and Lorde’s “Pure Heroine,” but neither have even crossed the 800,000 mark, with sales of both having tapered off months ago. There is one caveat, and that is the fact that the soundtrack to the animated film Frozen has moved well over three million units; but it being a soundtrack and not a single-artist release places it into a slightly different category.

Yet the year is not a complete wash, as 60 individual songs have been certified as platinum, and this is a clear reflection of the overall shift that the industry has made back to a singles-based focus. Thanks to digital downloads, buyers are no longer required to purchase an entire album, but when compared to last year, the number of platinum-certified singles is still down more than 20%.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/229695/2014-is-first-year-ever-with-zero-platinum-certified-records/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2014/10/16/not-one-artists-album-has-gone-platinum-in-2014/

[Brehvolution]

PAWGS

[Stoney Mason]

Not dead, just free.

That's fine for you but how are the next generation of rock stars and pop stars gonna afford the highest grade coke and prostitutes?

[Phoenix Dark]

Eminem has an album coming out before Black Friday, he could easily go platinum before the end of the year. Adele also might have an album out before the end of the year.

[Your Stalker]

white excellence

[PlayDat]

For as awful as the RIAA is I kind of have to thank them for popularizing albums vs singles as a way for artists to release new music.  My relationship with the medium has definitely grown much stronger since the days when I used to only ever use shuffle on ipod.

[Joe Molotov]

Damn you, Napster!

[TakingBackSunday]

This is the RIAA and the music industry's own fucking fault for being such stone agers.  Film and TV adapted pretty well to modern technology and public access to said technology.  The execs in music are STILL trying to adhere to their old standards and STILL not paying their talent shit.

To hell with them, I'll dance on their ashes.

[Big Hoops]

Taylor Swift is coming. 

[Himu]

This is the RIAA and the music industry's own fucking fault for being such stone agers.  Film and TV adapted pretty well to modern technology and public access to said technology.  The execs in music are STILL trying to adhere to their old standards and STILL not paying their talent shit.

To hell with them, I'll dance on their ashes.

How do you think they should modernize music?

[TakingBackSunday]

Jump completely and head-on into paid streaming services.  Oh sure, they have contracts with these services, but its really not profitable for either party with the current contracts that have.  PARTICULARLY for tha artists -- they're making fractions of a tenth of a cent for each streamed track.

The music industry needs to do several things:

- Pour more effort into streaming services or invest in their own streaming platforms
- Restructure their legal efforts to focus much less on violation on copyright and, more specifically, violations that the PRO's handle.  PRO's are basically industry-sanctioned debt collection agencies, they're a fucking sham.
- Stop signing 360 deals with artists.  It's profitable for the companies in the short run, but it fucks the talent and makes them want to sign elsewhere after a year or two.  It's not beneficial at all.

The album is dead and has been since the late 90s/early 2000s.  Album sales mean jack shit.  The sooner they realize that, the sooner they can make an effort to stabilize their dying industry.  There's a reason I got out music business relatively quickly once I moved to Nashville.

[Rufus]

- have a big cull/shrink
- deal with the fallout by doing some of those other things

[Madrun Badrun]

This is the RIAA and the music industry's own fucking fault for being such stone agers.  Film and TV adapted pretty well to modern technology and public access to said technology.  The execs in music are STILL trying to adhere to their old standards and STILL not paying their talent shit.

To hell with them, I'll dance on their ashes.