Back in the Day

was told at a recent music conference by an executive from an independent distributor that he wishes the Internet would be destroyed because it hurts record sales so bad.

I have in recent times heard from a major market radio consultant that the Internet was responsible for the demise in listener ship at radio formats around the United States and it should be banned.

To both of these statements I say, “It’s about time.” The one-sided business practices and limited opportunities within the radio / record / store system should have ceased years ago.

Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio magazine Talkers, told a group at the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show that competing technologies -- like Internet, Wi-Fi, podcasts and cell phones -- would all but fill the niche they now occupy.

"These are dark times for terrestrial radio," Harrison said. "And most people in terrestrial radio are in denial of it."

The old record industry depended on radio airplay to sell records for record retailers. Then they added MTV / BET to their record selling mix. This vicious cycle has finally started to erode. Technology has made it easier for more creators of music and multi-media projects, and with this proliferation of new material came new avenues to listen and expose these creations. The new record industry has been birthed and the initial growing pains are now presenting themselves. Change can be embraced, fought or ignored. Change cannot be stopped, and today’s technology has brought many new revenue generating ideas to our industry.

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http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12004