Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

The Internet Saved the Record Labels

posted by martyb on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-is-it-worth dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Bloomberg:

When Vivendi SA took over Universal Music Group in 2000, the industry was riding high on bumper sales of CDs, though the investment soon soured as illegal downloads surged. CD revenue plunged by two-thirds over the next decade, and by the early 2010s, unloading Universal would’ve been a tough sell; who would pay a premium for a company whose main product—pop songs—was widely available for free? But today, Vivendi is considering the sale of a stake in Universal that could value the label at more than $25 billion.
...
The rebound can be traced to the same boogeyman that almost killed the business in the first place: the internet. These days, music fans have largely shifted from illegal downloads to paid streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, and Pandora, which generally charge $5 to $10 a month for unlimited access to millions of songs.

Have record labels, like zombies, really returned from the dead?

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Internet Saved the Record Labels | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 22 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by rigrig on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:11PM (2 children)

    by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:11PM (#797442) Homepage

    So it might be sunny for Evilmegacorp, but it is still as bad as it's always been for the musicians. That's not a good thing.

    I prefer to buy my music from Bandcamp [bandcamp.com], they pay out a decent rate to artists, while I still get to avoid the hassle of dealing with plastic discs.

    (A most annoying experience I've recently had was when a band was not online, so I bought a physical CD at their concert... and couldn't get my computer to read it. So I had to go find a torrent...)

    --
    No one remembers the singer.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Informative=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:14PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:14PM (#797444)

    You should have complained to them. The least they should do is send you a replacement CD (and know that their fans can't play/rip their music on their computer).

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:51PM (#797460)

    Best thing about bandcamp for me is that I can find music I'm actually interested in. The megacorps aren't putting out any 80s style synthpop instrumental music these days, but there's lots of it on bandcamp.