“Better albums need to be made”
Written by tevensso on July 30, 2003 to Music Business.
STOCKHOLM - Your album “Mazarin” has since it was released in June sold more than 170,000 copies and therefore has helped raising an otherwise lousy first six months for the record business. What does it take to get the record buyers to come back to the stores again?
“A combination of many things, but basically better albums need to be made,” Per Gessle says to di.se, “Illegal copying and downloading from the Net is of course a problem, but the record industry must blame itself as well. The record companies want fast money and put all their resources in releasing concept artists with only one good song while the rest of the album is just padding, instead of artists that need a few albums to get established.”
- DI.se (In Swedish)
Other articles with the same topic
- Billboard mentions Roxette (February 26, 2011)
- Citigroup takes control of EMI (February 1, 2011)
- Kobalt signs Roxette in North America (January 13, 2011)
- Record "The Look" and win $5,000 shopping spree (August 11, 2010)
- EMI Music triples full-year earnings (May 8, 2009)
9 comments
LittleSpooky said on August 1, 2003 04:08:
To add my .02 and probably irritate a few people:
DUH!!!! Fans have been saying this for YEARS. The best bands are suffering in favour of “Spears/NSYNC/BSB” et. al. But each musician needs to make the effort, if not, the music industry rapes you at will. Roxette’s LACK of popularity in the US/UK/other places is living proof of this.
bobi said on August 2, 2003 20:24:
re: anonymous
Its a matters of opinion on what a “good album” is, I loved three quarters of HAND and loved all but one song on RS. But too many artists have only a single song that is good. The itunes store is hopefully going to help change record companies minds on mp3s and distribution.
Good going Per!, I have absolutely no problem spending my hard earned money on an album where ALL the songs are excellent. Too many artists expect people to spend 20$ on 2 songs.
Also, distribution needs to change and albums need to be more accessable world wide. I hate having to buy albums from European artists online and have to pay conversion, duty/customs, shipping and handling. It should not be up to the fan to prove that they love an artist by spending double on an import cd, the record company should distribute the cds more effectively. Perhaps this would decrease some pirating of music.
I dont understand why the music lovers have to do all the work while record companies just take in the money.
thats just my opinion............
Mfan28179-Jason said on August 3, 2003 08:29:
Yeah, better albums need to be made with more singles promoted as well. Nowadays, record companies release one single from an album and sell a few million based on that single, and since the rest of the album is crap, they have to move on and don’t bother promoting anymore songs because there isn’t anything worth promoting. That’s a problem.
What ever happened to the good old days when radio would easily support 8 singles/songs from an album? Think “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson, which spawned EIGHT Top Ten radio hits - and SEVEN Top Ten singles - in the USA and was promoted for two years. Nowadays, record companies get their one hit and move on. That’s why the turnover is so huge and acts are here one day and gone tomorrow. The support for established acts has gone downhill. Radio formats also need to change - at least here in the USA. Radio right now in the USA is limited mostly to R&B and rap that is played heavily for 6 months. There’s very little variety. People have to go elsewhere to get the music they want to hear. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one who notices this. Surely one would think record companies might snap out of it and see what the real problems are.
tevensso (moderator) said on July 31, 2003 11:25:
Thank you!