As we see it, the desire to
physically own music began to dwindle with widespread piracy, which more than
anything, has separated true music consumers from the casual ones. Yes, a
large chunk of people no longer spend money on pre-recorded music, but we’d
venture that the vast majority of them are the marketplace descendants of those
who in the ‘90s liked music well enough but owned 10 CDs or less and mostly
listened to whatever was on the radio. Of course, you factor in a 21st century
culture of not purchasing physical music and the number grows significantly,
but those are, arguably, not true music fans; not as we would define them in the
past, anyway. The consumers the biz has lost are the casual consumers, not the
folks who own the catalog and the bootlegs, have seen the artist live half a
dozen times, and own three different tour t-shirts.
So, who’s left? Those who
are gladly willing to pay for music. But the marketplace has made it difficult
for them with the number of shops dropping like flies. And shopping at Amazon
just ain't the same thing. (By the way, this is why if you open a brick
and mortar record store that sells vinyl, and jazz, classical and “heritage”
artists in any format, you’ll probably do well if your rent is reasonable, ‘cause
those consumers tend not to be attracted to illegal downloading. We could be
wrong, tho.)
