Killing the Recordings

   Hay guyz, I had a thought the other day. Does anyone else notice how most mainstream artists rarely put out new material? Think about it. Over the past decade, bands (or individual artists) hardly release new music. Average output of an artist is like one album every two to three years. Now look back on the previous decades, the decades before 2000. The Beatles put out an album at least once a year, sometimes twice a year. Led Zeppelin cranked out albums every year. Journey, The Who, Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Beck, the list goes on; just hop on the internet and do the research yourself. Older artists put out significantly more materiel than newer artists.

   Why do you suppose this is? It's because new material made the most money back then. In a time before Pirate Bay, Limewire, and even Napster, the "Music Recording" revenue stream was more valuable than the "Live Performance" stream. Back then, you could release an album, and expect your fans to buy it, making you lots of money. Once again, this is the case for mainstream artsist. You know, the ones that can afford the mansions, fancy cars, and giant swimming pools. 

  Now a'days, things run a little different. I'm sure most of you have torrented something before. I'll even admit I have. It's an easy and free way to increase your music collection. If we do end up buying our music, most people just buy one song. Before the "click to buy" music stores, people rarely just bought one song. Unless you lived in the early-mid 20th century and bought a nice, heavy, 78 rpm gramophone record. New music just doesn't sell the way it used to. 

   In spite of that, do you know what you cannot torrent? You can't torrent a stunning concert, and the trendy merch that you will probably buy while you're there. Thus, an artist will stay on tour months on end. They might go back to their home city and maybe work on some new material, but then they'll head back on the road, off to make some mega bucks in a colossal stadium. "Young The Giant", a young flourishing band, has been on tour for the past year and half. They've released one album. Bob Dylan has been consistently touring for at least the past two years. Before his latest, "Tempest", he hadn't released an album ince 2009. Katy Perry has released two albums in her crazy successful five year carrer, but she's constantly on tour. Touring makes the money now. 

   There are still the enjoyable indie underground artists that aren't just in it for the money coming out with new material constantly, but the big boys, they prefer to stay on the road. I guess this is just my long, round about explanation on why the "recording" revenue stream has passed the baton to the "touring" revenue stream [financially]. 

   You probably won't remember reading this tomorrow, but if you only got one thing out of this rant I just typed out, I would want it to be this: We can help ourselves to an artist's music without paying for it by sharing and torrenting, we just need to realize that there just won't be as much. The less you pay, the less there will be.