The music that major labels are shilling these days is mostly crap. We are in a musical ice age right now; grunge faded, Cobain died, Staley died, Hoon died...then it was the Rise of the Boybands. Ugh!

I disagree with the person that said they don't like buying the music as a tangible item they can hold in their hands. The packaging is part of the experience. But keep in mind this is from someone who only buys vinyl now. If it's not on vinyl, I will download it without paying. And I feel no guilt.

The record companies are getting exactly what they deserve.

Somehow, the recording industry needs to come to terms with the "long tail" concept that has taken over in movies and books through services like Netflix and Amazon.com.

I think the idea of an album "going gold" is of less importance than finding the right audience for the right music. What's good? What's bad? Who cares? Your trash is my eclectic, and vice versa. If I'm looking for obscure titles by some independent Celtic/Rock fusion group I heard at a festival once two years ago... why isn't the music industry there to help me?

Truth is, that it isn't there for me. I have to find it myself, on the internet, on small low-profit labels I dig up for myself, or from actual musicians selling their CDs out the back of a van. I still buy CDs, but they're weird. The major labels are looking for the next "hit". They haven't figured out yet that I'm not buying "hits". Someone is, but not me. And I don't think I'm that unusual.

Music is bigger and will last longer than corporate radio, record stores, and major-name concerts. And by the music world, I mean music... acutal people playing instruments and writing songs and trying to eke out a living... not executives and marketing and so on.

While overall record sales saw a 25% drop in the time frame quoted by Rolling Stone, the combined sales of the Top 10 albums dropped by nearly 60%.

The implication is that while people are clearly buying less music, they are buying a more diverse variety of music. From the standpoint of someone who has only bought 4 CDs this year (1 of which from a "major" label), I think this speaks to a market place that is searching farther and and wider for good material, and is less willing to settle for the Top 10 corporately shilled pieces of dreck.

Of course, I say that fully aware of the grotesque difference in record sales between say, Nickelback and HUMANWINE, but still I find this an encouraging piece of statistical proof that record industry output has been subpar in recent years.

Let's see if the labels can recognize this and diversify their portfolios a bit.

Could it be that the corporate model isn't a good match for music? Is it possible that consolidation, homogenization, branding and mass production doesn't improve everything in life?

Hell, even thinking of music as a product demeans it.

Flat pieces of plastic that cost $25, that's what the record industry sells. No surprise that people eventually don't want to pay that kind of money for a piece of plastic.

1. No new stuff

There hasn't been any major stylistic innovation since hip-hop/grunge in the late 80s/early 90s. When I hear the new offerings Iit sounds like retreads to me - I don't hate it, but it's been done before. When Wynton Marsalis' first record came out, I thought, "Not bad, but there's some nice mid 60s Miles Davis I'd rather buy." The Miles Davis had the livliness of being the document of an artistic discovery; the Marsalis had the feeling of being merely an adjustment to Miles' (and others') innovations.

So, why would kids of today buy Wolfmother in the same numbers as Zeppelin sold, when the Zeppelin records are still available?

2. Where's the hooks?

With some exceptions (Beyonce, Wolfmother) the new stuff doesn't have hooks. Bach, Black Sabbath, Public Enemy, Culture Club, and James Brown all have hooks. Now only the Britney Spears stuff has hooks. The rest of the current offerings are too preoccupied with being depressed to engage the listener. If you find Britney off-putting for some reason, that's too bad - she's got the only music with hooks on offer.

3. Smarter kids

Maybe today's kids are smarter - when they're told a band is New! and Awesome! they don't automatically believe it.

4. More other stuff

Maybe there's just more available - when I was a kid there was 10 tv stations, the radio, movies, music and comic books. Now there's the net, 100 tv stations in lots of homes (+more if you want 'em), radio, satellite radio, video games, movies, and music.

5. Filesharing

After filesharing maybe people just don't believe in the music industry's supposed juju, and have decided not to buy

The article fails to mention the fact that the spew being released and promoted by most major labels is insta-garbage. These major lable record companies are owned by megaconglomerates whose board of directors couldn't hum a tune to save their life. Their businesses are clueless and that is why they are losing money. I bet the Arcade Fire are making money this year. So are the Shins. And Of Montreal. And Joanna Newsom. And Artic Monkeys. And Battles. These overblown expense account crap labels need to die a horrible death before another Paris Hilton or Fergie record gets released.

Even in "The Great Heyday (Hayday?) of the Recording Industry," very few musicians had recording contracts, and only a tiny number made a good living making records.

It is wrong to say that musicians somehow have been hurt by the collapse of the recording industry. The industry was not helping them anyway.

Musicians are better off now that they can make their own records and control their own careers. Probably more musicians will be able to "make it." It still will be a small proportion of the huge musician population, but conditions are much better now.