Crying In The Wilderness

I hope that somebody out there has noticed that I haven't blogged much this week. Yes, I have been busy but it is really ennui over the state of the music industry, brought on by a spate of bad news this week, that has given me blog freeze.

Wal-Mart and Borders are reducing floor space devoted to CD sales. Album sales, digital or physical, continue to tank. Nobody wants to buy Napster, even for the value of its cash on-hand. Bad news and it is just going to get worse. (Several hours after my original post I came across this bearish take on the music industry.)

Also this week, Music Think Tank posted a piece called Please Buy My Record: The Futility Of Flogging Music by Rhodri Marsden a long-time indie musician, concluding that trying to sell music just doesn't make sense any longer.

Perhaps I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, so I'll say it like this: "Prepare ye the way of growth and profitability: Don't Sell the Music, Sell The Time Spent Listening to the Music. Make the arrows point up.”