Harvey Reid Newsletter 2005-2006 Page 2

Music is by no means dead as a way of impacting people. I see reason for concern but not panic. My 9-year old neighbor is learning guitar. The first CD I ever bought in 1986 still works perfectly. The LP's and tapes I own are another story. All my LP's together weigh as much as a truck, and it's astounding that pretty-good sounding digital reproductions of all the songs on them would fill up a few iPods. In a few years, all the music I own will fit on a wristwatch-sized object. Accessing and organizing this music is going to be the challenge. Carrying around all my LPÕs is unthinkable, and the appeal of having your whole music collection in your pocket is obvious. Clearly a lot of people who grow up with iPods will not buy large collections of CD's and LP's, but I wonder if the percentage of serious listeners or music collectors is remaining constant. ItÕs a big question whether or not people who already own a lot of CD's will stop buying them, or dump all their CD's. I know I wonÕt. It was very hard to get people top let go of vinyl and adopt CD's, and it will be nearly impossible to get them to switch again, especially when the CD's are still working fine. Digital books haven't taken off: books and CD's both still work perfectly. iPods are convenient and cute, but rather than solve all problems, they present some new ones. If you buy songs from Apple's iTunes, you can't move them around easily to other computers, and they will not play on a Sony mp3 player. ItÕs hard to lose all your CDÕs at once, or drop all your LP's at once into a puddle. A friend who is visiting can look through your CD collection and pick out a CD to play. Much harder if all your music is on a hard drive. Hard drives crash. Art work and liner notes have a lot of value when you are a serious music listener-- they are a problem with iPods. Hard to find out who played the fiddle solo when you download the song. Packaging is important in American retailing, and it seems inevitable that shiny packaging will re-emerge in music retailing. Major labels are downsizing, and are spending less to make albums, so there is less difference sonically between indie records like mine and big-time productions. In the past few years, it has become acceptable and "cool" to not be on a big label. It may even be a great thing if money-grubbing corporations who have controlled the music business for decades find it less profitable and look elsewhere for their next gold mines. It might make my little corner of the music business a happier place if they bail out. Makes me wonder what effect Henry Ford had on horse breeders. The arrival of the motorcar might have driven some big players out of the horse business, but might have made life better for real horse lovers. I wonÕt be retiring soon, though I should buy myself a gold watch for 30 years on the job. Better get on the phone and book some gigs, because Otto is going to need a ball glove and a bike before I know it.

Everyone in the music business is gazing into every crystal ball they can find to try to figure out what the future holds. Now that I have a new mouth to feed in my house, I am looking down the pike further than I normally would, wondering if I will be able to support my boy by playing folk music. What is my business life going to look like in 5, 10 or 20 years? People still ride horses, and some people still make a living selling and fixing them, though they have not been used for mass transportation for 100 years. If you just looked at the number of meals sold as a measure of success, then McDonald's has won the food war, but what does that mean to the serious chefs of the world who cook 50 dinners a night in a small town somewhere? Not much. Maybe declines in Sony's CD sales means as much to me as fast food burger sales mean to a great chef with a small restaurant. It is pretty clear that my business life will end up more like the small restaurant, where a reasonably small number of people who appreciate what I do come to see me and buy my CD's. The number of CD's I sell would be laughable for Britney Spears, but it feeds me and I have a good life and I don't eat dog food. When I look at my peers and heroes, they are also living on the fringes of the music business. What is happening? CD sales are supposedly fading, doomed to give way to internet downloads, while iPods and their kin are spreading like rabbits. Radio stations are red-hot property, with big conglomerates and people with agendas buying them up, so that there is not much mass media left under independent control. Big record labels are still merging; larger and larger chunks of the musical pie are being controlled by fewer and fewer. At the same time, it is easier than ever to record and duplicate music, and virtually everyone you meet at an open mike has a CD for sale. There is less diversity than ever in mass media, but with the internet and broadband access still expanding, there are avenues of information and worldwide communication that were unthinkable even a few years ago. It's a treasure hunt to find all the excellent independent music hiding out there, but donÕt just expect the good music to find you. Internet radio is taking off, blogging is big, and people are communicating with each other. Maybe music will spread around in new ways, and not just through broadcasting pipelines built and controlled by big money. People are sharing music with each other, which helps spread it around. There is no way to know how many CD's people like me are selling. We don't show up on the music biz charts or pie graphs. 1000 times 1000 is a million, Which means that if there are thousands of people (and there are) selling thousands of CDÕs (there are) then there are millions of CDÕs being spread around "under the radar." Probably tens of millions. I sell a lot, and so do a lot of my colleagues who are not on major labels. Even though a lot of young people are watching videos and playing with Play Stations, lots of people are still making and listening to music. Instrument sales are still strong.	Music is by no means dead as a way of impacting people. I see reason for concern but not panic. My 9-year old neighbor is learning guitar. The first CD I ever bought in 1986 still works perfectly. The LP's and tapes I own are another story. All my LP's together weigh as much as a truck, and it's astounding that pretty-good sounding digital reproductions of all the songs on them would fill up a few iPods. In a few years, all the music I own will fit on a wristwatch-sized object. Accessing and organizing this music is going to be the challenge. Carrying around all my LPÕs is unthinkable, and the appeal of having your whole music collection in your pocket is obvious. Clearly a lot of people who grow up with iPods will not buy large collections of CD's and LP's, but I wonder if the percentage of serious listeners or music collectors is remaining constant. ItÕs a big question whether or not people who already own a lot of CD's will stop buying them, or dump all their CD's. I know I wonÕt. It was very hard to get people top let go of vinyl and adopt CD's, and it will be nearly impossible to get them to switch again, especially when the CD's are still working fine. Digital books haven't taken off: books and CD's both still work perfectly. iPods are convenient and cute, but rather than solve all problems, they present some new ones. If you buy songs from Apple's iTunes, you can't move them around easily to other computers, and they will not play on a Sony mp3 player. ItÕs hard to lose all your CDÕs at once, or drop all your LP's at once into a puddle. A friend who is visiting can look through your CD collection and pick out a CD to play. Much harder if all your music is on a hard drive. Hard drives crash. Art work and liner notes have a lot of value when you are a serious music listener-- they are a problem with iPods. Hard to find out who played the fiddle solo when you download the song. Packaging is important in American retailing, and it seems inevitable that shiny packaging will re-emerge in music retailing. Major labels are downsizing, and are spending less to make albums, so there is less difference sonically between indie records like mine and big-time productions. In the past few years, it has become acceptable and "cool" to not be on a big label. It may even be a great thing if money-grubbing corporations who have controlled the music business for decades find it less profitable and look elsewhere for their next gold mines. It might make my little corner of the music business a happier place if they bail out. Makes me wonder what effect Henry Ford had on horse breeders. The arrival of the motorcar might have driven some big players out of the horse business, but might have made life better for real horse lovers. I wonÕt be retiring soon, though I should buy myself a gold watch for 30 years on the job. Better get on the phone and book some gigs, because Otto is going to need a ball glove and a bike before I know it.

WOODPECKER MULTIMEDIA 5 Fernald Ave York Maine 03909 USA phone (207) 363-1886

WOODPECKER MULTIMEDIA
5 Fernald Ave York Maine 03909 USA
phone (207) 363-1886