Off: Sad Music Industry

[Tom Minsel]

YEP!



>Damn wish I saved the article.  Anyhow Washington Times Business Section
>lead story concerned the continuing decline of the music industry.
>Projected numbers thus far are 10% worse than last year which was a
>disaster.  30,000 new releases in 1997 and only 2% of them sold more han
>50,000 copies.  Bands are being dropped from labels at an alarming rate;
>mega bands are signing lucrative long term deals based on what they have
>done in the past and few are making money in this game these days.
>
>The biggest problem cited in the article was that few, if any, of the
>major labels are independent business; most are owned by large
>conglomerates with an eye on the bottom line.  Sad, when artist ran this
>industry we got art, with coporations running the show we are getting
>"whats hot at the moment".
>
>Everyone is waiting for the "next big trend to emerge" to pull the
>industry up by the bootstraps.  This ain't gonna happen until one of
>those ivory tower jerks discovers The Brain Surgeons 8>).
>
>Who's really suffering from all this, music lovers and artist.  Death to
>corporate music, long live the indy label!
>
>Gonna go cry in some fake beer now.
>
>lil ab
>
>"JUST A GAME"
>Words and music by Rik Emmett
>
>Wizards of a modern age cast spells of electric power
>But the corporate strings that make them dance
>Lead up to an ivory tower
>There sit the fates in solitude, far from the public eye
>No one ever sees them smile and nothing makes them cry
>
>Welcome to the kingdom, the land of bought and sold
>A world of real-life fantasy where truths are seldom told
>Try hard to remember all that glitters is not gold
>You can pay the piper, but you cannot buy his soul
>
>CHORUS:
>It's just a game, you're in it all the way
>It's just a game, don't let yourself slip away
>It's such a shame, I heard somebody say
>It's just a game, and all I can do...is play
>
>What you do choose, now, what do you believe, now
>Who are you gonna trust?
>All you dreams and fancy schemes
>Just crumble into dust
>Calm and cool and computerized to calculate and collect
>We wait and watch and wonder
>Just which puppet they'll select
>
>Like the moth, too near the flame,
>Who learned his truth too late
>We're all too deep into the game
>That is the master of our fate
>
>The poets and the pipers have got their motives
>And you've got yours, no doubt
>And so the game continues
>That's what it's all about...
>
>
Tom Minsel, Ph.D.
Statistical Services
Abacus-Direct Corp.
8774 Yates Dr.
Westminster, CO. 80030
(303) 657-5274