Im sure my sentiments on the matter of Michael Jackson’s passing echo those of many other fans of his music, so I won’t bore you with my own revisionist history of how great Michael Jackson was. Instead, I’d like to focus on what MJ’s death means for the record industry. Does Michael Jackson’s death portend the death of the record industry?
Record sales are at an all time low. According to a recent Rolling Stones article CD sales are down 16 percent for the year alone; but that’s a mere footnote in the epic saga that is ‘The record industry recession’. Michael Jackson was arguably the greatest entertainer of my generation. With the record industry nearly knocking on deaths door I find it rather ironic that the artist with the best selling album of all time (the library of congress has a copy of Thriller), just bought the farm.
Downloads are where it’s at. People don’t buy albums anymore. The music sucks. The list goes on. Whatever the reason is for this aversion to the purchase of popular music, it’s quite clear that times are a changin’ for the record biz and the powers that be can’t make heads or tails of it. So then the question becomes, what’s next for the music industry? Or rather, how can record companies reassert themselves in the game and make themselves relevant. There’s more music out there than ever, they just aren’t making any money off of it.
There will never be another artist like Mike and paradoxically the record industry will never be what it once was. The hey day is over. That is unless they can pull a Mike move and come back as zombies to somehow charm their way back into the hearts of music consumers. It sure would be nice to have Mike on board for that ride, but, he ain’t coming back. And if my hunch proves right, neither is the record industry.
Tags: cd's, death, downloads, industry, Michael Jackson, money, music, record
