Offmessage

The music industry just got another step crazier…

In Florida, Utah, and soon in Rhode Island and Wisconsin, selling your used CDs to the local record joint will be more scrutinized than then getting a driver’s license in those states.

I can’t quite understand this. As any serious music fan knows often the only way to get hold of particular tracks is through the second hand market. The day that we can legitimately purchase new any or all tracks that we want from an obscure artists back catalogue is a long long way off, and seriously may never happen. By making it harder and harder to purchase second hand records they are killing the collector (or anorak, depending on your view…).

It was completists that pumped the UK single charts for years in the eighties, and it was those same completists that rebought their entire collection on CD, and then on heavy weight vinyl, and then 20th, 25th, 30th anniversary editions. Take the joy out of seeking out the rare and unusual and you knock the top off an already struggling market.

Of course, they already know this, but are just too damn scared to grasp the change they need. Like Doug said, it is only those in trouble that truly innovate. Give it a year or two and they’ll sort themselves out (one hopes).