Games vs Music, Music vs Games
p2pnet news view Music | Games:- Despite economic downturn, Canadian consumers spend big on video games.
That was the headline to a Canadian Press story pulled by in M&M’s World headlines yesterday.
“Canadian spent a record $2 billion on video games last year, fuelled by a $500 million pre-Christmas spending spree in December,” it said, “Sales including hardware, software and accessories totalled $2.094 billion in 2008, up 32.7 per cent over the previous year when $1.578 billion was spent, according to the NPD Group which tracks the industry.”
The NPD isn’t exactly famous for reliability, but nonetheless, “Despite the economic downtown, December sales were a whopping $502.8 million – up 27 per cent from the same period last year when sales were $396 million,” said CP.
“The NPD Group figures do not include PC gaming. The video game industry enjoyed another year to remember in 2007 – the first full year that all three next-generation consoles were on the market – when sales were up 56 per cent from the previous year.”
Says a p2pnet Reader’s Write, “The article about games doing great despite of the economic downturn, is a reflection on the market,” going on »»»
A market the excludes music from the home. Oh it isn’t that music isn’t being listened to, it’s that this is the end result of a combo of factors.
Those items contributing to the ending of music as a major entertainment factor in favor of games:
- Payolla, where replay city is the theme of the day but new music isn’t heard, unless it is on the favored list trying to push it to the top 10.
- High prices of major label music. Argue all you want about inflation and its equivalency in today’s money but I look at the price and think I bought such on vinyl for such and such and look at the price today.
- The actions of sue’em all. Not many products you can buy, be treated as crap for the buying, and then told what you can not do with it after spending your money on it. Also not many products you can buy and then be taken to court over them.
- The forgotten idea that when you buy something you should be able to use it in anything you own. Compatibility is a forgotten item when it comes to music. In the effort to limit usage DRM has killed compatibility when it comes to the player of your choice to use it in. Why buy what you can’t use at home, on the computer (if that is the player of your choice) or the vehicle?
- The announcement that the physical container is on the way out. IE the cd or dvd in favor of the digital download that costs nothing in the terms of a way to get it to you. The cheaper method does not interpret to one of savings for the customer but rather a way to keep the price the same for less.
- Quality of the digital download is not acceptable to the audiophile. In the end it is fine for the cheap player but with quality equipment the missing parts are deafening in their lack of ambiance.
Even in the modern world of today, there are people that don’t do computers nor the internet. It’s not like you can walk into a store if you don’t do computers and just buy digital music. When the format does change to totally digital downloads, that class of buyer will be excluded. This will reflect in future plunge in sales.
There is not enough bang for the buck in present music. It has no long term life in that sales will go on for years and years.
Today’s music is picked as much by a computer saying it is similar enough to the last greatest to be a hit, resulting in music that has become homogeneous and far less thrilling or notable.
In the heyday of music, albums could be expected to stay top sellers in the top 10 for sometimes a half a year. Today it is lucky if it makes the top 10 for a quarter of a year at best.
Today’s musicians are performers, not truly musicians. Remember all the foo-fa-rah over lip synch and performances last year? The sound engineers could not understand what the problem was with the buying pubic for concerts with lip synch. It’s been going on long enough in the music biz that it’s accepted standard practice; only the public was not informed of this as an ongoing practice. They think when they buy a ticket they are going to see a live performance of the artist actually doing what they do before their eyes. Why else buy a ticket?
On the whole I think that big music’s problems are: they have finally managed to get the message to their potential customers about copyright, money, and being asses. They’ve not only turned on their best customers but any possible ones and in some cases taken them to the cleaners with the sue’em. That word has gotten out and less and less want anything to do with music and the majors under the present conditions. They’ve managed to alienate an entire generation from their products.
The one way they have done much better is through games. Its been commented on that games are starting to turn more income for them than movies. The public sees games as more bang for the buck with more entertainment to it than just music.
When the times get lean enough, we may see a change to the attitude of big music. I am not holding my breath for this to happen.
I went on boycott with the start of sue’em all. I took a wait and see on the announcement of their stopping sue’em all as I could not see that happening when they were shopping for a replacement for MediaSentry.
Why would you need a replacement if the intention was to cease?
isn’t exactly famous – ‘Legal’ downloads beat ‘illegal’ ones: NPD, December 19, 2008
January , 2009
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