George Graham's Music Industry Outlook

Just found this interesting article by producer/radio show host George Graham about the overuse of compression and lack of dynamic range on modern CDs. I also really liked his review of the Ditty Bops--apparently, their shows include theatrical details (puppets, costumes) and their U.S. promotional tour is via bicycle (gear travels separately in a biodiesel vehicle). I want to tour by bicycle! Finally, he has an excellent 2005 year-in-review piece about the state of the music industry (growth of the indies and decline of the major labels; genre-specific analysis; the iPod effect; satellite radio and competing formats). Here's an excerpt:

"...seemingly lost in all of this business reporting of sales figures, is the music. The fact is, major labels are releasing bad music. I've said this before, but it bears repeating. In the glory days of the 1960s and early 1970s, the record labels were essentially run by the generation of people who founded them, and they were first and foremost music fans themselves. They were willing to risk a loss on the debut album of a promising artist they believed in, and there was a lot less concern about quarterly profit/loss reports for Wall Street investors. Now, with most of the label part of conglomerates, whose every move is studied by Wall Street, the people now running the labels live in fear of each quarterly report, so there is a great unwillingness to risk money on a new artist if that artist does not score a huge, instant hit debut album. Bob Dylan, Bruce Stringsteen, U2 and so many other major artists of today would never had a chance to make a second album under the current way of doing business. So, they sign and release artists who either sound almost exactly like one who did have a hit, or have connections to a hit artist. Innovation has largely disappeared from the major labels.

...the independent, or "indy" scene is where music is happening. Such releases get almost no play on the corporate commercial media, but it's been a very good year for a wide variety of music, released by small independent often ad-hoc record labels, and frequently by the artists themselves, who are able to sell their CDs directly, often through websites, and earn a lot more money per CD than they ever would on one of the major labels. And in contrast to the seeming implosion of the major label scene, the number of independent releases had never been greater.

...the concert business was not as kind to up-and-coming artists, with promoters booking fewer such shows. I think that says something rather unhealthy about the concert business.

...this may be a byproduct of the commercial media's star obsession. That of course, extends to commercial radio. With so few large companies owning most of the commercial stations in the country, openness to new music is probably at an all time low."