Is the record industry its own worst enemy?

The thread title sums it up = YES

CD is dying, high res is niche for geeks, LP is for anoraks. 

Its just so frustrating. They appear only to be interested in mass market (OK understandable as that's cash) but they will not push me into iTunes or MP3 ever !!!

Problem seems to all revolve around royalty laws (or lack of them), hence the regional barriers US vs Europe & even Europe vs UK (European free trade area, my arse)

Meanwhile I do all I can to have fun finding ways around the barriers & if I end up on the wrong side of the law, frankly I don't give a damn.

What's the album?

You are assuming that the purpose of the music industry is to support artists and distribute music.  This is not so.  The sole purpose of the companies in the music industry is to make a profit for their shareholders.

If they feel they can make more money exploiting the IP laws in different market areas, that's what they will do.  The preferences of the odd consumer who doesn't buy MP3s just doesn't come into the equation at all.

In a word,yes. And they always have been. They demonise and criminalise their loyal customer base because they can't believe we're mostly honest. Have you tried contacting the artist? Artists are another cohort who the industry habitually craps all over.

I think that what I was alluding too Huge,  maybe why the performers are starting to do there own thing & too hell with the record industry,  maybe some of which is a little misguided (U2 on iTunes) etc..  I'll be interesting to watch streaming like Spotify & Qobuz & the record industry work this one out.  I fear however us audiophools might get dragged along with the fight screaming & shouting for better SQ than they want to give us - remember Betamax & VHS

Four days ago I tried to buy a (long deleted) album on mp3 through Amazon.co.uk.

I live in France now and can pay in Euro or Sterling, I have bought and continue to buy physical items without a problem from them (as everything is a lot cheaper than Amazon.fr) On checkout I was invited to update my one-click ordering info. No other warning or useful information was forthcoming. Checked my info., yes all was ok and as it should be. "no check that info" says Amazon, check again, all is correct, cards, expiry, billing, invoicing, inside leg etc.

Eventually I email Amazon asking what I might like to change (add false address, dud card, etc.) I get an email back within 5 mins telling me I cannot make a digital purchase as I live in France, I email back saying I know where I live, I purchase physical items from .co.uk (all of which seem to originate from Orleans, not the New one, given their packaging and returns instructions) and I download my wife's autorips without a problem in France, the file I'm after is not available from .fr anyway, and why they are at it could they explain why there is such a barrier to trade when at checkout the digital release is apparently being offered by Amazon.eu (sarL).

No response since.

Just to add I've bought wavs & flacs from these sites without problem or barrier:

Bandcamp (PayPal, in all sorts of currencies)

Boomkat (in Sterling)

Burning Shed (in Sterling and Euro)

Bleep (in Euro)

Enoshop (in Euro)

the list goes on quite a way....

As FZ sang on the Joe's Garage releases, "These record company executives have plooked the f*** out of me..."

Music survives in spite of the recording industry, because it is music.

A friend of mine who does a lot of music photography was at the annual South By Southwest festival in Austin some years back, and Robert Plant was the keynote speaker.  He went, not expecting much, and said his talk was excellent.  During the Q&A session, someone asked Plant what advice he would give to up and coming artists trying to make their way, and his advice was to "stay away form the 'Big 3' (Universal, Warner, & Sony/BMG) at all costs.

Phew, it's not just me that finds the whole thing utterly frustrating then.  The most fundamental rule in business, when a customer offers you the asking price for your product, you sell it to them.  No, ah but, yes but, no but, you take the money and deliver what the customer requires.  Any other approach is ultimately doomed, and deservedly so,  

For the record the album was by Some Kinda Wonderful, album title the same I believe.

You would imagine that the freedom of the Internet would have upset the business models of the record companies by now. But alas, it ain't so.

It is still beyond me why I cannot buy every record conceivable at cd quality or better for a reasonable price, where the artist gets the most of the amount I pay and the digital distributor gets paid a reasonable and profitable transport fee.

Did you try buying straight from the band? $10 + postage if this is the band you're talking about?

http://somekindawonderful.gome...omekindawonderful-cd

Hi.  Thanks for the link, much appreciated.  I may order the CD via this route, though it's a little painful to think of a CD being shipped all that way for a further 11 dollars, which is more than the album itself.  It should have all been so much easier.  Carbon footprint reduction is clearly not on the agenda for the record industry either.

They look like a small band who don't have a big label behind them. What do you expect? Admittedly a Bandcamp site (which takes just10%) is a no-brainier and dead easy to set up.

Well, in the beginning I expected to be able to download it by some means.  Had that been possible they'd have their money, and I'd have my album.  

As Hugo said, the music industry never has been there to support artists , existing just to make money, with the exception of labels set up by bands to support themselves. For as long as I remember there have been bands that resisted the pressure to compromise their art to suit the record company, and went their own way, sometimes commercially successful, but if not then at least artistically successful - and I have always had a tendency to be drawn to that side of the music industry. But it can make finding recordings difficult, and unfortunately when being caught with extortionate prices whether because of postage from a foreign country or a specialist supplier, unfortunately it is not the band that benefits.

sometimes it is possible to get hold of music by approaching the band themselves, if you can find a route, because it is certainly in their interests.

I may have posted this before elsewhere, but an interesting take on the record industry from a man who knew it well and had his own legal wranglings with it.

As for the consumer end, how many new things have been the "death of the recording industry"?  Cassettes, digital tape, downloads, computer music - the thing they are second best at is predicting their own demise, which unfortunately never comes.  (They are best at screwing the artists and consumers.)

Looks like the band is signed to an indie called Downtown Records.  Without knowing the terms of the deal it is impossible to come to conclusions but I doubt this has anything to do with IP or royalty laws.  Perhaps Downtown only only acquired rights to the album for the US only - this could have been either a record company or a band decision, it goes both ways.  

Bands should think carefully about signing a worldwide deal unless they are confident the record company has the ability to deliver; not signing a ww deal leaves them in a position to do local deals in individual territories with like mind companies.  This may be the case in this instance, in which case it might be the band's decision to go it alone that is the limiting factor.  

Just saying things aren't always as straight forward as they seem.