I posted this comment on an earlier blog entry here on MTT and wanted to see if I could get some feedback by posting it here:

A thought just occured to me while reading the last couple of comments (forgive me if this has already been addressed somewhere else)...

Is it that music sales are down across the board? Or is it that there is so much more music being made that the margins have merely shrunk?

Example: If "Super Band A" from the 1970's was used to selling X number of LP's per year for a couple of decades then along comes "Band B", "Band C", "Band D", etc. etc.

Wouldn't the tap run down to a trickle? As more and more music is made available...Doesn't that spread the cash a little thin (for all parties involved)?

Now this is not to suggest that file sharing and the digital environment have not had an impact on music sales...But just how much impact has "Saturation" had on music sales?

Again, forgive me if this has been addressed already or seems simple minded...It was just an idea that I can't remember being brought up before.

Thanks,
Milton

It's certainly conceivable that with more products on the market, and as more money is driven down towards the tail that the head will shrink. I'd be surprised if less money than ever was being spent on music across all parts of the industry, though more and more of that will be on music technologies (including guitars) than on records.

I'm pretty certain that more music than ever is being consumed than at any time in living memory. But not all of that, as you know, is paid for, purchased recordings.

Which just means that our lives are more enriched by music than ever before. How great is that?

It is great indeed!

I have to admit, there are times when I come here to comment and I feel dwarfed by the collective knowledge and experience of the majority of contributors...

You seem to have a talent (in your replies) for not allowing me to feel like a fool for my contributions.

Thanks for that Andrew!

Too much music? What a provocative thought. I blame much of the decline of the big record companies on pirating (of which I used to be guilty of) but I think your “too much of a good thing” theory plays into the equation. Over the past 15 years computers and the Internet have leveled the playing field, giving indi bands the ability to “run with the big dogs” of the mega labels (somewhat). The easier and cheaper it is to record, refine and produce one's music, the more music there will be to purchase. It's a good thing, but....