Will the recording industry ever get it?

The latest in the ongoing saga of declining CD sales from MSNBC:

"Album Sales Plunge, Digital Downloads Up"

This is not the economy. This is the decline and immenent demise of an antiquated business model. The recording industry is still trying to behave as if they are selling vinyl in 1975.

Here's the problem: Popular music sales are driven by kids. When my mother was a teenager, she accumulated a large collection of 45s (for the kids out there, I'm refering to 7 inch 45 RPM Vinyl record singles). She would spend the week eagerly waiting for the weekend so she could go add to her collection with the latest from Elvis or the Everly Brothers. Like most people, she hit her music consumer peak in her early teens. Sorry, but adults make up a fraction of the music market. Sure, we buy CDs, listen to music, have collections - but it is not like kids.

My son took his Christmas money and went out and bought a dozen CDs. Why? Because he's my son and is not yet into downloadable media. (Yes, I'm old fashioned and severely limit his online time.) But most kids are already there, and he'll be there by the time we ring in 2010. And while he bought CDs this year, the new MP3 player he got for Christmas will change all that. He'll be downloading soon. And the CD sales numbers will decline again next year.

Sorry, but labels are quickly becoming a thing of the past. (I can't wait until they want a Congressional bailout!) The internet is here - no longer the future. They haven't figured out how to make money there because they haven't figured out how to identify talent the right way. Sorry, but while Katy Perry may move a ton of tracks this year, she has no legs in internet terms. Not unless she really becomes an "artist" and not just an "act".

I could ramble on forever, but I'll just say this: the time for independent artists has arrived. They will lead the way and show the corporate WORLD (not America, the world)how it is done.