Is Hip Hop Dead! Will Real Music Have A Resurgence?

The 2009 holiday season is approaching fast, yet holiday season sales were a dreary time for the recorded music industry in 2008, as it struggled through another season of plummeting CD sales that, along with continued file sharing on peer-to-peer networks and rapid advancements in myriad forms of digital distribution, continue to disrupt the traditional music business. The resulting turmoil among the four remaining "major" music labels (and their signed recording artists) has led to waves of file sharing lawsuits against individuals (their own customers), massive restructuring of music retail and distribution relationships, and continuing layoffs. Amid this chaos however, there are visions of the "celestial jukebox" – an idyllic, digital future in which all music is accessible to consumers all the time, from any device, anywhere, at a reasonable price, and in which music creators share in ever greater pools of advertising and subscription based revenue, in the place of traditional sales.

Until the record distributors, EMI, WEA, UMG, SONY, decide to provide their consumers with better content, and consumers demand better music, until that happens, it is just how it is. The downturn of the industry just didn't happen overnight, this has been a long process that has been transpiring for years in the record distribution, radio, and ... Read Moremedia oulets. The distributors are more interested in the "bottomline" (more revenue, less input) , instead of "good" music. Let's face the facts, more consumers than not are into the music content that proliferates the radio, MTV, VH1, BET, Itunes, MySpace, Imeem, AOL, etc...

The business models that were created by the "BIG 6" back in the late 80's with the adjusted retail prices, has literally killed record sales, forcing would be consumers to pirate at an alarming rate. The difference now is that virtually every company is a participant in the "new" music and entertainment business. The new technology available and the advent of the internet, with social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Iseecolor, etc., independent artists and labels can now deliver their products quickly to consumers. The problem is that there are no controls on what is being put out there, the content is most times not professionally recorded, and the performances sub-standard at best, and to keep up with these new companies, record distributors seem to have lowered their standards to stay in competition with them.

Corporate radio consultants for Cox, Beasley, Clear Channel, etc., rule over MD's and PD's and mix dj's at traditional radio stations these days. 10 years ago and beyond, it was much easier to program what the actual listeners wanted to hear, vice a board deciding what listeners allegedly want to hear. There are some good consultants out there, a few of my friends, but for the most part the majority are controlled by the corporate boards at these radio broadcasting companies.