Comments on: publishing http://gonze.com/blog/2008/08/06/publishing-industry/ internet music technology since ~2002 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:34:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: gurdonark http://gonze.com/blog/2008/08/06/publishing-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-794 gurdonark Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:58:16 +0000 http://gonze.com/blog/?p=436#comment-794 The sheet music industry originally started in substantial part as as way to sell musical instruments. The recording industry went one better, by offering the listener a musical experience without the need to have technical proficiency. Now the technology is giving the listener the best of sheet music and the best of the recording experience, and the market is altering again. Yet the funds available for the important pursuit of music in most peoples' lives isn't contracting--it's reallocating. I am also interested in things we don't think of as "musical" directly, but which arise from the same instinct--"Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" and all the new computer games. Nobody totes in the rather high per-unit cost of these items in determining whether there is a music "decline". I hope that musical instrument sales are booming, because the creation of a music culture depends in part on citizen/practitioners. The sheet music industry originally started in substantial part as as way to sell musical instruments. The recording industry went one better, by offering the listener a musical experience without the need to have technical proficiency. Now the technology is giving the listener the best of sheet music and the best of the recording experience, and the market is altering again. Yet the funds available for the important pursuit of music in most peoples’ lives isn’t contracting–it’s reallocating.

I am also interested in things we don’t think of as “musical” directly, but which arise from the same instinct–”Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” and all the new computer games. Nobody totes in the rather high per-unit cost of these items in determining whether there is a music “decline”.

I hope that musical instrument sales are booming, because the creation of a music culture depends in part on citizen/practitioners.

]]> By: Jay Fienberg http://gonze.com/blog/2008/08/06/publishing-industry/comment-page-1/#comment-793 Jay Fienberg Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:48:50 +0000 http://gonze.com/blog/?p=436#comment-793 Those numbers are pretty interesting! The whole "music industry in decline" thing has always been part of the (big record labels') frame of discussion around their record business as *the* "music industry." Of course, it never was *the* music industry. And, it's great to re-frame them in the more realistic context of traditional-persistent music industries like instrument making and songwriting. Those numbers are pretty interesting!

The whole “music industry in decline” thing has always been part of the (big record labels’) frame of discussion around their record business as *the* “music industry.” Of course, it never was *the* music industry. And, it’s great to re-frame them in the more realistic context of traditional-persistent music industries like instrument making and songwriting.

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