Insanity
One popular definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."
This applies to so many of our current problems it is not funny. One prime example? The record industry.
The market has always wanted ONE thing: THAT song - IOW, SINGLES. The industry doesn't want singles though so it fails to provide what its market demands. This has led to problems as consumers rebel.
Quick history lesson
Way back at the beginning all we had were singles. The 75 - 90 RPM records of the early days only gave 2-3 minutes of play. And that was fine with the market. They wanted that single copy of Al Jolson singing "Toot, toot, tootsie" and did not WANT to buy a dozen to get it. The earliest records even had just ONE side.
Of course, if an artist produced enough hits there were many who would buy a set of discs with them on them. These were sold in a binder, as a set. In other words, an ALBUM of records. Classical music (once recording it became possible) also came on several discs because of the playing time.
Things went on like this for decades and then longer-playing 33.3 RPM records were introduced, first in 1931 (unsuccessfully) and (after the patent expired) again in 1948. Trying to lock in a patent, RCA came up with a competing product, the 45 RPM record, with an (at the time) incompatible player. We then had three formats: 78, 45, and 33.
For another few years singles were offered on 78 as they always had been but the 45 slowly took root and eventually ruled that market. The major labels dropped 78s in 1957. 45s became the staple of teenagers, collectors, and jukeboxes thereafter. They were THE medium that made the bucks.
But record companies did not like the little record that could. Making the masters cost almost as much as the LP did and the wholesale price of singles was less than half a buck. That was a lot of items for the return.
Now, SOME groups could sell an LP, or "album" as it had come to be called (since it replaced the book of singles previously sold). Soundtracks and classics sold LPs. The Beatles, Stones, Sinatra, ELO, and such could move albums. THAT was what the companies wanted. But HOW to get people to buy that album by the latest One-Hit-Wonder(s)? People didn't want to shell out 8 times the money to find that the song on the radio was the only one they could stand to listen to.
The record companies started pushing "concept" albums - things that linked the songs into a whole, like a soundtrack. Tommy, Days Of Future Passed, The Wall, etc ruled for a while and the companies cut way back on singles.
But they would not go away. People still liked just a few cuts and wanted them ala carte'.
Worse, discounters had started bidding down the price of the LPs. The time to sell a new release was short and the shop that could get the biggest numbers of kids in the door made the bucks before the fad faded. By the early 80s you could get the latest album for about $5 - or less.
So the record companies decided to take it out of the hands of the market and went to ONE new format - the CD. Then the trouble started.
The first CDs were expensive to make. At one point they had to be mastered and produced in Japan. The players were expensive and not very good. There was also a flaw in the process that resulted in CDs having no bass below 440 Hz (later fixed). The new discs were expensive - more than 3 times the price of LPs because there were no domestic plants in the beginning. When plants did get rolling the price was not lowered. Yes, people jumped for them but not in the numbers the industry wanted so they forced the issue in 1989 by ceasing production of regular records.
Many buyers gave up on buying music altogether. And there was a market now without a supply - the singles market.
For a while there were mini-CDs and cassette singles but the market was not thrilled with paying as much for a single as they did for an album just recently. It also made it hard to gauge a new release's popularity. It now became like TV ratings - a good guess.
It did not have to be that way. Production now cost almost nothing. WAY cheaper than the LP or 45 had ever been. The companies could have gone back to a reasonable price structure but they refused. They LIKED that big mark-up. So did the retailers. Not the buyers, of course.
The industry did not care. People were replacing their collections with the new format and sales were about what they had been a few years before - albeit on fewer transactions.
Then the backlash started.
People quickly found that they could trade and resell their CDs because people were not worried they'd be scratched and noisy. Used CD shops started popping up everywhere and every resale of an old disc was a sale the record company did not pocket. Income dropped. The industry lobby, the RIAA, howled and ran to Washington to try to get resale banned, taxed out of existence, or otherwise stopped.
But the genies was out of the lamp and there was no controlling what people did with something they owned. They could sell it, gift it, or use it as a coaster.
The ease of duplicating CDs quickly gave rise to bootlegs. The profits were just too great to resist, even at a third the price.
Worse, the PC and online revolution had started. Sounds could be ripped to files and sent or posted anywhere. CD burners became common. Then the floodgate opened. Napster and other sharing clients appeared. The public had found a way to get what they wanted all along - SINGLES!
So the RIAA went back to Washington and got that made illegal. They went after kids all over the country. Some groups that went after downloaders found themselves boycotted. "Pirate" sites moved overseas, out of easy reach. Sales continued to drop but the record companies did not change prices. A generation now online has not developed a habit of going to record stores and car music systems now incorporate MP3 players in place of CD players.
Begrudgingly, some labels have started selling downloads of individual tracks although they are threatening to raise prices on selling nothing physical. CD sales are so low that several magazines and sites have declared the format dead. The big product now is an MP3 player, not a CD player. No kid wants to have to feed a CD player at $17-20 a pop. I see CD portables for $10 here now.
But the RIAA is still fighting to keep the tracks under control. They still go after kids downloading to their iPod on Grannie's computer.
So we have a situation where just about nobody is making money off recordings anymore. Creators have to do concerts to make the bucks or sell their own CDs or downloads, bypassing the greedy company that won't give anyone what they want.
Real sane, eh?