Big news - apparently home streaming is killing music after all.

This article on the register is interesting, in that apparently fewer people are buying music through any route. CDs are a dying medium, but many (like me) haven't adopted streaming either.

I've been thinking about this from a variety of angles. Talking with my mother a couple of weeks back, she mentioned that when she and my father were younger they actually joined record clubs in order to listen to music with other people. Recorded music was still a relatively rare and wonderful thing, and people would get really enthusiastic about it. When I was a teenager we would have 'record evenings' with the youth group, where we'd bring our music, play a track and explain why it floated our boat. I remember hearing 'In the court of the crimson king' and 'Abraxus' in these settings.

What's changed?

Music is everywhere. There's nothing rare or wonderful about it (most of the time). Punk killed the need for artistry and ability, electronic new wave and techno killed the requirement for spirituality and feeling while death metal and a desire to go ever more extreme made hard rock unappealing to healthy adults. So we get bombarded with music which neither moves our feet nor touches our souls in everyday life, all the while being immunised to the power of truly creative and exciting music that some less mainstream individuals are still producing.

I'd suggest something similar has happened in the Christian music world too, though much more insidiously.

I both gave and received Paul Baloche's new Album 'Glorious' at Christmas, and on first listen was so disappointed I never really wanted to pick it up again. Commercial is the first word that springs to mind, followed shortly by Uninspiring and Utterly Professional. (on subsequent listens I think the songs themselves have excellent lyrics and tunes, but need to be played by people who mean it instead of just being very accomplished). We've been through the mega-bands, and now 'stadium worship' has become mainstream with all the money to be made from tours, promotions and album sales fueling an industry that appears to be like the secular version (from this perspective).

People aren't buying music because it's no longer a thing of wonder.

I REALLY hope that the music industry as it has been declines rapidly, and that we'll start seeing a new breed of band that either fund themselves by touring, or even retain the day job and just gig for fun. I am not interested in technical excellence in music - that's so commonplace as to be almost worthless as that Paul Baloche CD indicated. If you want to hear perfectly executed music just turn on the TV or radio. I want to hear excitement, fun, spirituality, energy. I want mistakes, joy, humility, tears, laughter and even some anger coming through. And if it's a worship album, I'd like it to sound as if I can believe worship is taking place, rather than thinking "God, that sounds just so insincere". No disrespect to you excellent musicians out there, but technical perfection in music is not something that works for me.

Why is the music industry being killed? It's a victim of it's own success. Maybe it should have tried the BMW approach of selling less, keeping the market hungry for good product while QCing out the ordinary.