Music Industry doesn’t like iTunes…

I think that the music industry as a whole is freaking out about the emergence of digital download services like iTunes…but wait, before you say, “yeah, and what else is new”, I think I have a new theory. Well, someone somwhere may have already thought this up and posted it on the web, but this realization came to me when I was helping my sister look for a Lindsay Lohan song on iTunes.

She wanted to do a song with me at a talent show and one of the possibilities was the song “Something I Never Had”. The hope was that I’d get the song, make up an acoustic-y version of it and we’d be set. Well, that song never worked out, but I have a legal copy of it on my computer thanks to iTunes. I was curious about my sister’s perception of Ms. Lohan, so I asked her if there were any other songs on the album she likes. “Not really,” was her reply. “Well, maybe Rumors,” she added.

Then it hit me. You see, personally I think Lindsay’s album embodies a lot of things that are wrong with the music industry today. It’s a well recorded, but copycat production of all the other teen sex-idol girls that have come before her. I don’t doubt that Lindsay has talent (not my favorite genre, however). But not many of the songs on her “Speak” album are worth listening to. Several of them seem to say the same thing in, er, slightly different ways. Now, I know that I shouldn’t use my sister’s tastes as a generalization of all young females, but I noticed that Ms. Lohan only sold one song for 99 cents. The usual channels for an artist would be to write a bunch of songs, record a full 10 song album, and then sell the package for $10-$15 bucks. Record Label makes a profit. The problem is, Record Label knows they have only put a lot of effort into 2 or 3 of those songs. As long as people want those, they will buy the whole cd. It seems like that has been the way the system has worked for a long while. There are not many hyped up artists who sing/write a CD full of great stuff. By great stuff, I don’t mean hits, but stuff that’s just good to kick back and listen to.

Digital Distribution companies that offer single songs of albums for downloads change all that. If a band only makes 2 good songs they only reap in $2, for example. Everyone in the industry will have to start coming out with better and more original songs to fill albums with. No more “8-filler-songs-and-2-hits” on the market. I think this has got a lot of people worried. We’ll have to start being creative again. :-)

Hyperbole abounds, so please read this with a grain of salt. I know that some bands are bummed about having their albums broken up into individual songs for good reason. Radiohead is an excellent example. They put a lot of effort into creating a sonic texture that flows from song to song, so a broken up album wouldn’t capture the essence of their art. But these kinds of artists are few and far between. I myself haven’t reached that level of forethought and creativity. My albums are admittedly a hash of stuff, a journal of thoughts from seemingly scattered eras of my life and experience. My most downloaded song off iTunes is by far “Remember Me”. But that’s totally fine with me. It challenges me to write music that connects with people, but to not sacrifice my own “voice” as an artist in the process. This is a lesson that the well-established music industry machine will be forced to relearn sooner than later.