Big Music Labels Dying
Very interesting commentary.
In summary, 75% of music are published by the big 5 record labels and
their subsidaries. Last year all of them were either losing money or
barely broke even. They blamed music privacy and file sharing. We
think otherwise.
This commentary pointed out something new to me. Since earlier 90s all the music labels were pushing those boy
bands and girlie bands to teens. None of these bands lasted more than
a few albums and music quality were generally rather poor. They could
not keep those fans as the fans grew up, and were replaced by other
boy bands and girlie bands, which would attract teens then, but could
not attract the now grown-up fans. Fans who have grown up stopped
buying music, or buy a lot less music than before. The cycle
continues, and now there is a whole generation of 20-30s who don't
listen to much music. Every few years a new generation joins this
class of non-consumers. The situation would only get worse. They say the big labels either radically change their business model, or go out of business, within 5 years.
The situation in Hong Kong for Canto Pop isn't much better. The most successful record companies such as EEG actually act as managers for their artists, and take a big cut from every dollar their artists earn, e.g. TV adverts, product promotion, concerts and shows, etc. I discussed this with a friend, who told me that albums don't sell all that well these days, as a lot of fans just buy cheap pirate copies. It's tough being an artist.
9:16:04 AM 
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