a crank’s progress

Two guys who opened a record store in 1993 (closed in 2005) off these comment on the RIAA cartel:

DESPITE the major record labels’ best efforts to kill it, the single, according to recent reports, is back. Sort of.

You’ll still have a hard time finding vinyl 45s or their modern counterpart, CD singles, in record stores. For that matter, you’ll have a tough time finding record stores. Today’s single is an individual track downloaded online from legal sites like iTunes or eMusic, or the multiple illegal sites that cater to less scrupulous music lovers. The album, or collection of songs — the de facto way to buy pop music for the last 40 years — is suddenly looking old-fashioned. And the record store itself is going the way of the shoehorn.

The money quote:

The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today it’s not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.

And where do you buy singles (if you buy them at all)? iTunes, eMusic, etc.

I leave you with these words from Dick Dale:

We send email:

Officer, when a citizen offers you a “Good Morning” even as he knows he is about to cited for a traffic violation, would it hurt to reply with something other than a request for a license and registration?

And when you render the citation, is it that difficult to actually inform the citizen what they were cited for? I realize public safety is a thankless job, but I would hope that when you meet members of the public who are not a challenge to deal with, you might acknowledge that.

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