{"id":388,"date":"2014-06-21T22:55:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-21T22:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/applecrumble.wordpress.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2017-09-20T11:31:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T11:31:10","slug":"record-sales-as-a-temporary-blip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2014\/06\/21\/record-sales-as-a-temporary-blip\/","title":{"rendered":"Record sales as a temporary blip"},"content":{"rendered":"
I grew up as a musically-enthusiastic child of the ’80s and ’90s, watching Top of the Pops<\/a> on Thursday night and talking about it with my friends at school the next day, reading Smash Hits<\/a>, listening to the top-40 singles countdown as I got ready for bed on Sunday evening and generally paying attention to what was happening in the charts. At some point,\u00a0all of this dropped away for me. The singles chart was no longer meaningful. Part of this was me getting older and part of this was the fact that it didn’t take quite as much to get a hit anymore. The rise of satellite and cable TV as well as the Internet were factors too\u2014there was so much choice that my friends and I no longer had the shared experience of listening to, reading about and watching the same bands through the same limited channels. This whole transition felt like a general decline.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago I caught a programme on Radio 4<\/a> which was discussing the state of the music business. They made the point that young people now expect to be able to download and listen to whatever they like for free and that an\u00a0effect of this is that\u00a0live concerts\u00a0have now become the primary ways in which (big and popular) artists such as Prince, U2 etc. make their money. The situation of old had reversed: in the past, live shows were adverts for singles and albums and now those singles and albums are adverts for seeing your favourite band in a live show.<\/p>\n

Or so I thought. I’m currently in the middle of reading the “extended special edition” of part one of Mark Lewisohn<\/a>‘s incredible Beatles biography<\/a> which details the history of the band right up to the end of 1962, before they had their first hit. This passage was very interesting and made me think back to that Radio 4 programme:<\/p>\n

Still, the everyday business of management was the stage. No \u2018pop stars\u2019 could live off broadcasting fees and only the very biggest of chart stars could live off record royalties, so minuscule were the percentages. No one even tried. The sole object of making records was to attract a bigger profile and so earn higher fees from concert and ballroom shows \u2013 and, if the artists were lucky to be chosen, to appear in summer seasons in seaside resorts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So perhaps the recent change isn’t a decline per se<\/em> but rather a reversion to an old normal. Perhaps the focus we had around records instead of live performance as we were growing up was a drawn-out, temporary blip?<\/div>\n

I grew up as a musically-enthusiastic child of the ’80s and ’90s, watching Top of the Pops on Thursday night and talking about it with my friends at school the next day, reading Smash Hits, listening to the top-40 singles countdown as I got ready for bed on Sunday evening and generally paying attention to […]<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music","7":"h-entry","9":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6925,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/02\/20\/die-da-memories-of-mtv-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":0},"title":"Die Da!?! Memories of MTV Europe","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"20 February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Satellite TV arrived in my life in 1988 when I was eleven years old, and it felt like I sudden leap into the future. My dad had seen a \u2018you can\u2019t afford not to\u2019 offer in the newspaper that got us a dish and 16-channel decoder supplied and fitted for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/DraggedImage-2.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6992,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2021\/03\/04\/waitwheres-the-single\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":1},"title":"Wait…where\u2019s the single?","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"4 March 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The BBC\u2019s excellent programme on Top of the Pops: The Story of 1989 has got me thinking. Until I watched it, I hadn\u2019t appreciated the background to Marc Almond and Gene Pitney\u2019s wonderful duet version of Something\u2019s Gotten Hold Of My Heart. Almond had recorded a cover of Pitney\u2019s song\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/TB54dZkzZOY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11294,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2024\/10\/12\/mix-from-may-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":2},"title":"\ud83c\udfb6 Mix from May 2006","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"12 October 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my friends recently stumbled across a mix CD that I put together back in 2006, filled with songs that I had been listening to at the time. Through the marvels of modern cloud services, I\u2019ve recreated it as a Spotify playlist. I think the tracks and the sequencing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of the back cover of a home made compilation CD called \u2018Sampler - May 2006\u2019","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DraggedImage-11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DraggedImage-11.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DraggedImage-11.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DraggedImage-11.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5395,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2019\/12\/03\/everything-old-new-is-new-old-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":3},"title":"Everything old new is new old again","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"3 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There\u2019s a certain joy in hearing an old song and recognising a sample that was used in a tune I\u2019m more familiar with. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) was a great recent discovery for me whilst revisiting Janet Jackson\u2019s Rhythm Nation, Eminem\u2019s My Name Is has been usurped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/HRpTmBAnkp0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11514,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2025\/01\/06\/weeknotes-306-48\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":4},"title":"Weeknotes #306 \u2014 48","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"6 January 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"After getting back from our Mexican holiday on Monday, I spent most of this week pottering around. I managed to get out on my bike on New Year\u2019s Eve just ahead of a storm, and since then it\u2019s been too cold and yucky to ride outside. So my routine has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weeknotes"","block_context":{"text":"Weeknotes","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/weeknotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Greetings card with the text: \u201cME: I\u2019M THE MOST EASY-GOING PERSON EVER. ALSO ME: WHAT KIND OF CLOWN LOADED THE DISHWASHER LIKE THIS?!\u201d","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DraggedImage-4-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5450,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2019\/12\/19\/the-best-album-ive-heard-this-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":388,"position":5},"title":"The best album I\u2019ve heard this year","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"19 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Warning: The songs in this blog post contain a significant amount of swearing and other adult material. It\u2019s best not to play them out loud if there are little ears around. I first heard Marika Hackman in early 2019 through my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. I tend to stick Discover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8C518E0C-D040-49AF-8610-9520946DCCFD.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8C518E0C-D040-49AF-8610-9520946DCCFD.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8C518E0C-D040-49AF-8610-9520946DCCFD.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/8C518E0C-D040-49AF-8610-9520946DCCFD.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}