Bad News for Retail CD Sales, Good News for Indie Music

My dad just forwarded me this depressing Wall Street Journal piece describing the how CD sales are slipping due to digital downloads, the demise of record stores and price pressure from Big-Box retailers--but I think they left out two important factors:

"In a dramatic acceleration of the seven-year sales decline that has battered the music industry, compact-disc sales for the first three months of this year plunged 20% from a year earlier, the latest sign of the seismic shift in the way consumers acquire music.

... The slide stems from the confluence of long-simmering factors that are now feeding off each other, including the demise of specialty music retailers like longtime music mecca Tower Records. About 800 music stores, including Tower's 89 locations, closed in 2006 alone. In recent weeks, the music industry has posted some of the weakest sales it has ever recorded. This year has already seen the two lowest-selling No. 1 albums since Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales, was launched in 1991. One week, "American Idol" runner-up Chris Daughtry's rock band sold just 65,000 copies of its chart-topping album; another week, the "Dreamgirls" movie soundtrack sold a mere 60,000. As recently as 2005, there were many weeks when such tallies wouldn't have been enough to crack the top 30 sellers. In prior years, it wasn't uncommon for a No. 1 record to sell 500,000 or 600,000 copies a week.

... Digital sales of individual songs this year have risen 54% from a year earlier to 173.4 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But that's nowhere near enough to offset the 20% decline from a year ago in CD sales to 81.5 million units. Overall, sales of all music -- digital and physical -- are down 10% this year. And even including sales of ringtones, subscription services and other "ancillary" goods, sales are still down 9%, according to one estimate; some recording executives have privately questioned that figure, which was included in a recent report by Pali Research.

Meanwhile, one billion songs a month are traded on illegal file-sharing networks, according to BigChampagne LLC."

What two factors did the WSJ miss, you ask? Well, I was on an educational conference call last night with New York City publicist Ariel Hyatt. She emphasized having realistic expectations in attempting to garner attention for your new release. It's tough out there, she said, first off because this country is in a recession and we're at war. It's funny how rarely anyone says that. We are now so disconnected from the results of our military engagements and disenfranchised as citizens that we forget the most obvious of realities. Now, I realize that not all consumer spending indicators correlate to these factors--probably the novelty of DVDs and home entertainment systems, for example, buoys their sales. But CDs are 20 years old. They are not a perfect medium (none is). And there is a locust-like cloud of new releases out there, as the indie movement gains strength (you've seen the American Idol auditions: There are a lot of people who think they have talent and don't). The major labels are imploding. From the publicity standpoint, there are some ugly trends:

--Staffing at entertainment and culture sections at major newspapers
has been slashed (Ariel claimed it's to make room for war coverage--I can't say one way or the other). Reporting (second only to musician as a job you do for love, not money) pays a pittance. Most writing is either by syndication service, ensuring that identical Associated Press articles fill papers nationwide, or by freelancers who earn 80% less than a pittance.

--Newspapers are losing print advertisers and subscribers to the Internet.

--As major labels have downsized, the market is packed with formerly corporate publicists who are hawking the wares of bands.

--In the age of reality TV, blogs and Web, media savvy is on the rise, further clogging the market with information as bands improve the effectiveness of their publicity.

That said, I am ever the optimist. Here's what gives me hope:

1. Musicians who are in this for the long haul still stand out. It will take years for you to be noticed by influential reporters in New York City, for example. But with consistency, creativity and plenty of follow up, they will write about you.

2. We can call the shots. At the SXSW music conference this year, apparently the mood was upbeat as everyone finally realized that indie music is here. There are no more "discoveries." It's up to us to make our own success, now. Tools of immense power and persuasion are at our disposal.

3. The drumbeat of stories about the demise of the retail music industry ignores the indie side, focusing exclusively on the majors. Anyone in this business for a few years soon hears the horror stories of rip-offs, locked-away masters, forgotten royalties, mismanagement, creative quashing and cookie-cutter makeovers that bands endure with major-label deals. This is business, and really, is any business pretty? We have a chance now to define our own futures outside the confines of corporate America. How exciting!

4. Indie music is rallying against some of the unfair business practices of the major labels--and succeeding. One suggested remedy to the payola scandal uncovered by then New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was to require radio stations to devote a percentage of air time to local bands or independent artists. And there are other positives associated with indie music's new clout: Digital rights may be easier to protect when bands are small and local, leading to the "don't steal from your friends" effect. Hey, it could happen.

5. We all need beautiful music in our lives. Styles, sounds, instruments, venues, technology, techniques and performers will change, but melody and rhythm are as elemental to us as air and water.

Play on!