Richard Barber

Essex

Company Director

The music industry is in decline - partly, of course, because of the issue of defining the music industry with the blurring at the edges with video and other presentation formats, but also because of the fragmentation that occurs with ill-defined channels to the consumer. The past few years have seen rapid change and transient groups unlike the longer lasting 'bands'that were prevalent in the 70's and 80's. The 'charts' no longer mean much to anyone; certainly not the force they used to be in confirming what is popular. Most businesses depend upon a core of really profitable revenue streams to fund new stuff that may or may not succeed. The death of bands and the charts are telling blows for the music industry in its current shape. If people like me hadn't bought the same material for the older bands on vinyl, then tape, then CD, the music industry would have been in even more desperate straits.

Despite claims of musicians only getting a tiny part of the revenue, successful ones seem pretty well-off to me (unless they chuck it away through excess!). However, it will be easier for musicians in the future to make some impact through their own efforts in terms of using the internet, MP3 etc but they are also less likely to achieve the astonishing impact on the lives of huge numbers of people that groups like the Beatles and even (so help me) people like the Osmonds and Bay City Rollers. Of course, some people might look on that as a positive improvement.

And don't imagine that somehow utopia is going to arrive on the music scene with the musicians getting all the money and having total control over their musical integrity: where there is money, there are always people who find a way to exploit the opportunity...