Taylor Swift wrote about the future of the recording industry and the stance she takes is that it isn’t failing, “it’s just coming alive.” This stance ignores reality, but OK, I will humor you T-Swift. You write your own songs maybe you can write op-eds?
Taylor writes, “There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them.”
It’s been widely accepted that after Napster invented file-sharing the music industry would not be the same. The most popular artists today don’t sell as many albums as the popular artists of the ’90s and ’80s. We can get music for free, or we can listen to an album then decide if we want to buy it or we can just buy the songs we like individually. The record industry however is still latching onto the idea that artists have to sell albums, their inability to come up with a solution to the internet and file-sharing is basically why they are a sinking ship. The result has been the popularity of 360 deals where the label takes more money from the artists through merchandising, tours, publishing, likeness, etc. to compensate for what they don’t make from sales. This ultimately sucks for the artist because their only choice is to be owned by the label or acquire no deal at all.
Now, Taylor is an artist who can still sell albums so I am not saying we shouldn’t look to her career for insight, I am saying she is ignoring the reality that other artists have to face. She is an exception to the rule not the rule.
“In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently.”
That’s the thing though, it’s just an opinion. How can you acknowledge the consistent decline of the music industry then also say it’s not happening? Are we really to believe that albums aren’t selling just because they aren’t good and her albums are simply the best the industry has to offer us in the last few years? Um, no. The fact that some artists sell and some don’t means what it always has: artists who don’t have the distribution and marketing power to promote their music don’t get their albums sold, heard or noticed. Artists like Lady Gaga, who spend millions to promote their record and sell relatively poorly, well, yes, they should be questioning their quality. However, it’s not a cause and effect situation. It’s not and never has been make good music -> sell good music to millions of people.
“Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for. It’s my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will someday decide what an album’s price point is. I hope they don’t underestimate themselves or undervalue their art.”
I agree, society should be willing to pay for art because it’s what nurtures us. That has little to do with the recording industry. We have alternative ways of experiencing art and we have more say in what we value. I’m going to buy Yeezus because I regard it as art but I’m not going to buy Rihanna because I don’t regard that as art although I may listen to her music in Spotify. Today individuals decide what the art is worth not the recording label.
“In mentioning album sales, I’d like to point out that people are still buying albums, but now they’re buying just a few of them.”
Yes, duh. That’s kind of the point.
“They are buying only the ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel like they really aren’t alone in feeling so alone. It isn’t as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should challenge and motivate us.”
She’s right record labels and artists have to get creative about the way they present their music and should focus on quality. However Taylor using the argument that she sells more albums because she is better than all the other musicians on the planet is a logical fallacy. I am not undercutting T-Swift’s music but she is not the most valuable or best artist of this generation, she happens to be one of the most sellable which is different. Popularity doesn’t equate to quality. The Big Bang Theory is not the best comedy on TV but it is the most watched.
“A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry.”
This is really fucked up to me. It’s not about whose best, it’s about whose more popular. It’s high school all over again except this is business and culture and art we are talking about. And yes, Taylor is correct in this instance: businesses value your brand more than your content.
“This moment in music is so exciting because the creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless. In this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only accepted…it is celebrated. The only real risk is being too afraid to take a risk at all.”
Agreed.
“There continues to be a bad girl vs. good girl/clean-cut vs. sexy debate, and for as long as those labels exist, I just hope there will be contenders on both sides. Everyone needs someone to relate to.”
I like diversity too I just hope we stop pitting people against each other because they are different.
Overall, I think Taylor makes interesting observations. This is a transitional period for the recording industry and if it can find new and creative ways to promote artists then it will survive in one sense. However, it hasn’t really been doing that, as she acknowledges, people buy albums just fewer of them. What Taylor fails to see is that culturally we have shifted away from buying albums and into buying singles or no music at all or only the albums we really like but is still holding onto the idea that an artist can only be measured by, or the recording industry can only be saved, by album sales.
The shift away from albums is not a bad thing for listeners and it doesn’t have to be bad for artists. I think she is correct in her understanding that artists who can connect with the most people are the ones that will benefit the most and sell the most but I don’t think she is willing to admit that being able to garner a lot of attention doesn’t necessarily mean you make great art. Taylor is right to assume people buy what they enjoy but she ignores the fact that we are exposed to such a limited amount of music it’s unfair to presume that the starving artist in Brooklyn just didn’t put enough “heart and soul” into their record as she and Katy Perry did. Taylor Swift is someone who has struck a chord with millions so she is not totally off base. Artists and the music industry alike need to make things more interesting. When everyone is making a dub step album and dying their hair green why should we like one artist more than the other? Nevertheless you can’t ignore numbers and selling albums is a numbers game and those numbers are steadily dwindling.
[Getty Images/Jason Merritt]
