The financial decline of the music industry and two possible consequences

edwardc77 · 03-31-2013, 04:10 PM

First Consequence:
The end of big budget productions.
It will be very difficult to hear in the future complex albums that require months of studio sessions and lots of money to fund. Albums like Sgt pepper’s lonely hearts Club band, The Dark side of the moon, Loveless and The Fragile to name but a few.
If I remember correctly the total cost in 1967 for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band was around 50 thousand pounds (the equivalent of 750 thousand dollars today) for 5 months of studio time.
This would not be possible today, not for a rock band at least.
Nobody would risk so much money for one album.
….and it’s a pity, because I believe we will probably miss out on a lot of potentially good records.
The other consequence will be that artists will not be given a second chance.
The Fugees first album (Blunted on reality) and The Beastie Boys second record (Paul’s Boutique) were both commercial failures when they came out. Nevertheless they still received another chance. They both received 100 thousand dollars and plenty of time to work on another project…. and the result was great albums!
It probably would have never happened today, we would simply not have had albums like The Score or Check your head.
So guys, what do you think, are my preoccupations real? And do they really matter?

03-31-2013, 04:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
edwardc77 Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Italy Posts: 128	The financial decline of the music industry and two possible consequences First Consequence: The end of big budget productions. It will be very difficult to hear in the future complex albums that require months of studio sessions and lots of money to fund. Albums like Sgt pepper’s lonely hearts Club band, The Dark side of the moon, Loveless and The Fragile to name but a few. If I remember correctly the total cost in 1967 for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band was around 50 thousand pounds (the equivalent of 750 thousand dollars today) for 5 months of studio time. This would not be possible today, not for a rock band at least. Nobody would risk so much money for one album. ….and it’s a pity, because I believe we will probably miss out on a lot of potentially good records. The other consequence will be that artists will not be given a second chance. The Fugees first album (Blunted on reality) and The Beastie Boys second record (Paul’s Boutique) were both commercial failures when they came out. Nevertheless they still received another chance. They both received 100 thousand dollars and plenty of time to work on another project…. and the result was great albums! It probably would have never happened today, we would simply not have had albums like The Score or Check your head. So guys, what do you think, are my preoccupations real? And do they really matter? Last edited by edwardc77; 03-31-2013 at 05:31 PM.