Crisitunity

Lisa Simpson: “Look on the bright side, Dad. Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for ‘crisis’ as they do for ‘opportunity?’”

Homer Simpson: “Yes. ‘Crisitunity!’”

Sorry. I know that quote is overused, but I saw a repeat of that episode recently and it still makes me laugh.

Chris Anderson, he of Wired Magazine and Long Tail fame, has some informative numbers on the music industry posted on his blog today. The figures are yet another reminder that the current "crisis" is only afflicting a fraction of the players involved in the music industry. It just so happens to be the fraction who has the most to lose and the fraction who has the political and (dwindling) economic clout to make the most noise about it.

Just as interesting as Anderson's figures are the numbers posted in the comments section from (presumably) someone at CD Baby, an online distributor of physical CDs for independent artists. I'm sure that data from people purchasing CDs at gigs, if anyone is tracking this, would also support this overall argument. It's not that people aren't buying CDs, they're just not buying them from the places the major labels want them to (and where reliable data can be gathered).

Anderson is not the first to remind us that the music industry is more than just the sale of recorded CDs, but it's worth bearing this in mind when anyone mentions the current state of the music. The technologies of music making and music listening are changing, so are the practices through which people incorporate music into their lives. It's not surprising that the make up of the music industry should shift along with it.