While some of us claim to have a good understanding of how the music industry works, and sometimes offer keen insight into trends that define the business, there comes a time, every now and then, when we have to re-assess this expertise and really question whether anyone has any clue at all as to how trends in the music business will manifest themselves. This thought occurred to me while looking at the chart positions for various Michael Jackson albums in the immediate aftermath of his death. It’s been over a couple of weeks now, and at least three of his releases are still in the top five in the UK, Australia and even India. With over 100,000 CD’s sold in Australia on Friday following his death, the Sony BMG factory had to work through the weekend to meet the maddening demand. This is in the face of decreasing music sales and music retailers going through something of a crisis.
The larger question here is, what is it that makes people run to music stores to buy Michael Jackson albums when they could just as easily download the music for free (and illegally) as they do so many millions of songs every day. Why the sudden moral impulse to get it from the right source? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning or accusing people about their online habits and their means of acquiring music. That people want any music badly enough to want to download/rip/steal/buy it from any source is a good enough reason to make me happy about being involved in the music business. And I am definitely not one to question Michael Jackson’s genius and the impact that he made on the world through his music. But the sudden peak in music sales makes me wonder at the unpredictability of the music and other entertainment businesses as well.
It’s probably safe to say that there was probably no marketing plan involved and MJ’s label had no idea about the whirlwind of demand that was going to hit them. It was clearly a massive public reaction, and a very emotional one too, to the point where it probably became a trend where people were buying an album just to pay tribute and not necessarily because they really wanted to hear “Billie Jean” again. But who can tell what the reasoning is?
On a slightly different note, I was gifted an iTunes music card yesterday. A wonderful gift and the first of its kind that I have been given. It basically works like a pre-paid phone card and lets me download music from iTunes. A simple idea itself and a clear sign of how the music industry is evolving. But how many of us music listeners and industry people could have imagined even 10 years ago that CDs would not be common music currency. I can’t help but wonder where we will be 10 years from now and whether there is any point in wondering about it.
