Tower Records has filed for bankruptcy and some people seem to get it:

“The collapse of Tower is a sign of the evolution of music," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, a market research firm. It's pretty clear that recorded music is going to Internet distribution and right behind it will be video entertainment."

CD sales fell 6% last year while digital music downloads increased 188%. But some people still have their heads in the sand.

Like this guy, who, apparently, gets paid for his opinion:

"The transition to digital music has not happened by any stretch of the imagination," Card saidÂ…

Â…"If I want to buy something cheap or try a new band, maybe I'll go for the cheapest which is digital, but all else being equal I'd rather have the physical product, and I'll pay a few dollars extra for it."

Really? I havenÂ’t been in a conventional music store in two years and I buy LOTS of music. In fact I took an informal poll of my friends this morning and out of ten people not one of them had bought a hard copy of a CD through a conventional music store in the last year. Two people said that theyÂ’d ordered from Amazon, a few discs that were hard to come by, but most people simply downloaded what they wanted.

But a walk-in, brick and mortar music store? Unless youÂ’re looking for the crap that is floating around on the Billboard top 100 youÂ’re not going to find it. Inventory=bad, sales=good. That's how business works. DonÂ’t get me started on inventory turns.

I donÂ’t know if this guy is completely out of touch or if heÂ’s just trying to spin this, but he continues with another, even more moronic statement:

"A store is a place where you can show things, make an entertainment experience. I believe music retail can make it if someone can put together a one-two punch with digital stores and physical products. For example, you could buy an album online and pick it up in the store."

I donÂ’t think IÂ’ve laughed this hard in a long time. Someone should probably tell him that EisenhowerÂ’s no longer in office.

Yes, the quality of music in general has not helped the business. It sucks, and record execs have put the gun in their own mouths. And yes, other forms of entertainment may have taken a bit away from music sales, but anyone who believes that digital music is not about to completely eclipse CDs probably still has some 8-tracks lying around.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:35 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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