As a lifelong music fan, I love this topic. However, I'm a little disappointed that Kevin Flerlage puts all of his emphasis on Napster (the hot music topic of 1999). He barely mentions paid streaming services (the topic over which most current "death of the industry" analyses focus on today) and the current rise in recorded music revenues over the last decade. Don't get me wrong, the Spotify model has its flaws, but focusing on the death of the CD and the rise of downloads seems a little narrow. There was a point in time (1978) when the rise of the cassette and the ability to record music off the radio and dub copies of cassettes was thought to be the death of the industry, but then CD's came around with higher quality audio and music sales soared. It will be interesting to see how high streaming revenues eventually peak, when they peak, and what the next recorded music disruptor will be.
(For the record, my first vinyl was Michael Jackson reading an abridged version of the E.T. story, my first dubbed cassette was Michael Jackson's Thriller, my purchased cassette was Def Leppard's Hysteria, first CD was Pearl Jam's Vs., first song I remember downloading an mp3 was Radiohead's Faithless the Wonder Boy (because listening to it as a cassette single b-side was very inconvenient), first purchased mp3 was Pearl Jam's Corduroy from The Bridge School Collection, Vol 1, and not sure what my first streamed song was, but my most streamed artist of 2023 (so far) is Taylor Swift.)
Totally agree about the focus on Napster! His analysis is a bit old I think- it ends at 2018, but still, Spotify was a big deal even back then. I don't even remember the last time I actually purchased and downloaded a song.
As a lifelong music fan, I love this topic. However, I'm a little disappointed that Kevin Flerlage puts all of his emphasis on Napster (the hot music topic of 1999). He barely mentions paid streaming services (the topic over which most current "death of the industry" analyses focus on today) and the current rise in recorded music revenues over the last decade. Don't get me wrong, the Spotify model has its flaws, but focusing on the death of the CD and the rise of downloads seems a little narrow. There was a point in time (1978) when the rise of the cassette and the ability to record music off the radio and dub copies of cassettes was thought to be the death of the industry, but then CD's came around with higher quality audio and music sales soared. It will be interesting to see how high streaming revenues eventually peak, when they peak, and what the next recorded music disruptor will be.
(For the record, my first vinyl was Michael Jackson reading an abridged version of the E.T. story, my first dubbed cassette was Michael Jackson's Thriller, my purchased cassette was Def Leppard's Hysteria, first CD was Pearl Jam's Vs., first song I remember downloading an mp3 was Radiohead's Faithless the Wonder Boy (because listening to it as a cassette single b-side was very inconvenient), first purchased mp3 was Pearl Jam's Corduroy from The Bridge School Collection, Vol 1, and not sure what my first streamed song was, but my most streamed artist of 2023 (so far) is Taylor Swift.)
Totally agree about the focus on Napster! His analysis is a bit old I think- it ends at 2018, but still, Spotify was a big deal even back then. I don't even remember the last time I actually purchased and downloaded a song.
My first CD was Mariah Carey's Daydream album!