A good bud of mine recently blogged I am Officially Getting Old…, when deciding whether to fork out A$110 to see Ice Cube at a club show (you read that right) in Melbourne or do other stuff with the cash, like:

# imagine the dinner I could have at a lovely Italian restaurant with my wife & son for $110, or
# I could buy 3 cubic meters of good soil for my veggie garden for less than $110!!!

He also added:

# it’s a week night, so I will be tired the next day for work

Notwithstanding my friend pondering his appreciating chronological state of being, what does this say about the business of music?

It is little wonder the industry is in such a parlous state when a club show for an artist such as Ice Cube costs $110. [I wouldn't call myself a fan but I do own a couple of his recordings.] Having worked in the biz for more than a decade I understand why it would cost that much, but I also know that only hard core fans will pay that much. It’s not a great growth strategy.

Industry king maker Irving Azoff recently tweeted:

@irvingazoff so if you want ticket prices to go down stop stealing music.

Hard to argue with the logic if a record company remains the pinnacle investor in the industry. Perhaps that’s the problem. The industry needs not just a new investment paradigm but also a new investment vehicle.

This from the LA Times:

Over the years, continued Rapino, the music business in general and Live Nation in particular (referring to Stewart), “started to forget along the way that our job in the value chain is to kind of connect Dave and his fan, and make sure that experience and product is good. And I think what’s happening in the music business on the concert side — this is the first year in 20 years in which the industry is starting to feel kind of a push-back from the consumer. And it’s all about what you would think: We’re charging too much at the door; we’re charging too much for a service fee; we’re not being creative along the process in the delivery of the product. We’re letting you do all the creativity and then kind of wrapping it up in a noncreative way.”

Most of those engaged in the business of music never understood where they actually sat in the value chain. If they did the industry wouldn’t be in the condition it’s in …

I have long admired the work of Paul Resnikoff over at Digital Music News. Impartial, well balanced and thoughtful analysis of the music of business … er, music business.

As I played music my whole life and worked in the industry for more than a decade I have more than a passing interest in music biz fortunes.

Anyhow, Resnikoff published a few stats presented at New Music Seminar in New York. Scary numbers that will parallel in the book biz as more and more digital content goes online:

* Albums that sold at least one copy in 2009: 98,000

* Albums selling more than 10,000 units in 2009: 1,319

* Albums selling more than 10,000 units in 2008: 1,515

* Albums selling more than 250,000 units in 2009: 85

* Albums selling more than 250,000 units in 2001: 214

* Albums selling more than 5,000 units in 2009: 2,058

* Albums selling under than 1,000 units in their first year of release: 92,601

* Number of albums selling less than 100 copies in 2009: 81,000

Paul recently added a discussion/forum to his site, which you’ll find here:
http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/072110nmsstats

The internet promised much for the freedom of creative expression. Of late it seems to be a battleground of vested media and corporate interests.

Yet from time to time the full power of the platform as a means for people from all corners of the globe to collaboratively create art is realised.

185 people. 12 countries. Here is one beautiful example: