Undead Industries

If anyone reads this blog, you have probably notice a lack of updates recently. There are 2 reasons. First off, there isn’t much new happening in the music industry right now. Yes there are a ton of great summer shows, and a few good albums. But that is not what this site is about. Any current posts about simply be beating a dead horse.

The second reason is that I am going to be moving this site to www.robshelby.name. It’s currently being designed. It will have this blog, my personal blog, as well and my social links like twitter, plurk, and last.fm.

Go out and do something interesting.

Many of you may have noticed other blogs [rolled on this site] claiming that the art of the album is dead. Financially they may be counterproductive. But the art of the album will be more difficult to kill than all of these bloggers are claiming. Think about how friends work. Think about how you catalog your memories. The human brain is written in language(s). Lexicon changes with friends, experiences and cultural events. These are not short time spands, usually around a year or more. This is what an album is. The album isn’t for you. It is for the artist.

Putting together an album is like putting together a book. It represents what is happening at that point. A single is to a photograph as an album is to a chapter. Albums also create the effect of generationism between artists and fans. It defines eras. As an artist, if i put together an album, I only sell it as an album. If you want to listen to a paticular song, you may stream it for free.

***What if Pink Floyd released Brain Damage and a few other songs from Dark Side of The Moon, not explaining that it was simply a part of a whole. It wouldn’t make sense. If Neutral Milk Hotel released Aeroplane Over The Sea as a series of singles, it would not have the staying power that it does.

In 2007 the sum total of digital music sales was $2,318,700,000(net). The total for CD sales (albums and singles) was $7,464,500,000. I can not wait to see what the sales will be like in 2008. For the digital sales I included singles, albums, subscription services, and mobile downloads…

Dear RIAA,

I could you please start including how much publishing dollars were paid to artists in total? The numbers that are posted on your website don’t tell us much. It would be nice to be able to compare the ratio of dollars earn in total to the dollars paid to artists in total between indie artists and major label artists.

I’ll need this by the end of the day. cool? thanks!