"My wife has carried around all of your albums (and many more) on Steve Jobs’ Apple devices since she bought her first iPod years ago. I know from personal experience that she taps into your collection at home, in the car, and on vacations—literally at the drop of a hat, whenever she wants. If she hadn’t, I would have forgotten about your band back in the 1980’s. No CD player or radio station would have changed that, I can guarantee you."
The long tail of internet stores like iTunes, Amazon, or Rhapsody allows us to access far more music than we ever could before. It's much easier to listen to old and obscure music than ever before. Thus instead of spending out money on whatever new album is being promoted in the front display of the music store, we're spending our money on the old bands.
That $300 the author spent on Bon Jovi is $300 not being spent on new and upcoming bands.
Spending that $300 on new and upcoming bands is not the only other option though. If iTunes etc weren't around and one was only presented with the album at the front of the music store, personally I'd be spending the $300 on beer long before buying Bieber's latest.
The biggest problem facing that new and upcoming band is not that I will spend money on old bands instead. It's that I've never heard of them so don't know if they're any good and will spend my money on something other than music. iTunes (+Amazon, Rhapsody etc) does more to solve that than anything else Bon Jovi or the rest of the music industry have done.
I almost want to agree (because $300 is an obscene amonut of money to spend on a concert), but seriously, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber don't seem to be struggling.
"My wife has carried around all of your albums (and many more) on Steve Jobs’ Apple devices since she bought her first iPod years ago. I know from personal experience that she taps into your collection at home, in the car, and on vacations—literally at the drop of a hat, whenever she wants. If she hadn’t, I would have forgotten about your band back in the 1980’s. No CD player or radio station would have changed that, I can guarantee you."
The long tail of internet stores like iTunes, Amazon, or Rhapsody allows us to access far more music than we ever could before. It's much easier to listen to old and obscure music than ever before. Thus instead of spending out money on whatever new album is being promoted in the front display of the music store, we're spending our money on the old bands. That $300 the author spent on Bon Jovi is $300 not being spent on new and upcoming bands.