Here’s some food for thought.
“What marks out classical downloading from pop-based genres is that classical music has so much more to gain. Digital technology is fast becoming the new vanguard in the fight for audiences” (Emphasis mine).
This is my basic belief as well and I’m very pleased to see classical musicians embrace it.
Check out the rest of the article here.
Here are some more interesting tidbits worth mulling over:
“Of all the musical genres that have benefited from the emergence of the digital music market, perhaps the most unexpected is classical. While classical music accounts for less then four per cent of CD sales, it makes up 12 per cent of downloads from Apple's iTunes Music Store. A genre that many thought was dying out has made a surprising revival.” Link.
And
“There are stirrings of a gold rush in the world of classical music, and it comes from an unexpected quarter: the web. In a market whose consumers have been written off as so doddering they have barely got over the loss of 78s, the statistics are striking.” Link
And
“While sales of classical CDs in the United States decreased by 15 percent last year, SoundScan reports, digital downloads of classical albums grew by 94 percent. More significant, several labels are finding that the classical share of the download music business is about 7 percent, more than twice the share in physical retail outlets.” Link.
Agree? Disagree?
Update: You might also check out this related post over on Noble Viola.
1 comment:
The disproportionately large share of digital downloads being for classical music is probably a good thing, but the decline in CD sales most certainly isn't. If too many people fritter away their money for over-priced digital rip-offs then the ability to pop into a CD store and buy something tangible could become a thing of the past.
I don't know about you, but I prefer buying CDs to using iTunes or any equivalent. To this day, I have not paid for one digital song, but I have converted my own CDs to MP3 for copying to my iPod Shuffle. If my computer or iPod dies, I've still got the original CD. If I decide tomorrow that I want to buy an iriver, I won't have to pay to download the same music again, and won't be restricted by the over-reaching DRM technology which makes digial music so unpalatable.
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