The Jigga Man Got My Back

In what is not really news anymore, the music industry claims it is suffering due to ever increasing downloading and digital music services. The last decade has seen music retailers like The Wherehouse and Tower Records eat a bankruptcy biscuit, and labels cry foul of mp3s and P2P networks. Of course, it didn’t stop record companies from licensing their artists to iTunes, Napster, and a dozen other pay-to-(download and) play sources who realized that sales of hard copies of CDs were soon to be as scarce as places to sell them. But in selling songs on demand, the industry may have slit it’s own throat.

Even though the vast majority of music consumers by CD albums, the numbers are down almost 20% from last year, while digital track downloads are up nearly the same percentage, and the driving force is the desirability of single tracks. While pundits try to find a way to bilk $15 out of consumers instead of $0.99 a download, the issue that most of them ignore is what drives people to not purchase a CD or all the tracks on an album – and the reason is simple. Most artists these days are incapable of putting more than two or three decent tunes together.

With the American Idol pop songster phenomenon in full swing, cranking out single after single is far simpler than crafting an entire album. The development an artist or band experienced is no longer there, as producers come in and doctor a track for a recording and then head off to crank out the next one for the next person. Especially with pop albums, there’s so little continuity that albums may as well be compellations because the singers and songs are so generic and interchangeable. And where talent lacks, you used to be able to hide an album in a single or two, but the filler no longer needs to be there as the market only wants to pay for what is presented as a single, not as supplemental. The recording industry knows this, yet still decries the evil that is digital music while pushing garbage out and pretending they’re not responsible. They’re so busy blaming the medium they’re not looking at the message.

Industry executive Steve Rifkind (founder Street Records Corporation and Loud.com) confirms, "People are going after one hit. They are not really caring what the album sounds like ... They are not into artist development anymore. If us as an industry went and started developing talent again, and not worrying about one hit, it would be more than a singles-driven business again."

Jay-Z, when not out big pimpin’, also blamed the quality of the music for the current climate.

"We're making disposable music. You can't make disposable music again and again and again and again and not expect anything to happen. We have these huge radio records ... and then won't sell any records," he said. "If you're making just songs, they'll listen to it in the clubs, that's great, they'll listen to it in their car, that's beautiful. Will they buy it? No."