Dear FRONTLINE,
After seeing your show tonight and reading the article on Velvet Revolver I must say I am very disenchanted in the general attitude towards the band and the fact that they have some experience under their belt. I know Iím not the music industries target market since Iím male and in my mid 30ís. But who wrote the law that said every act over 25 must accept their Loganís Run type fate and go away to die in the industry?
When I was getting into music I didnít think that Paul McCartney, Robert Plant or the Rolling Stones were too old or recycled. While I enjoyed listing to the newest bands I also enjoyed discovering both old and new music from established artist from a generation before me like Crosby Stills & Nash.
Perhaps the key to the music industryís slump has less to do with MP3ís and more to do with putting their fate into a fickle target market that spoiled them in the late 90ís by buying ten million copies of ìBaby One More Timeî and ìNo Strings Attachedî and now has outgrown that music and turned their back on them.
Maybe Princeís ëMusicologyî and ìVelvet Revolver ìContrabandî wonít sell as many copies as ìPurple Rainî & ìAppetite for Destructionî did. But it seems like simple economics to consider that it is better to have a dozen acts that will sell 1 or 2 million records every time they release a record than one or two that sell 10 million and then fade away. Then again, it seems the business was built on swinging for the fences and striking out a lot then going for solid base hits.
Andy C
Norman, OK
Dear FRONTLINE,
Its a shame that the producers of this show didnt get deeper. I was all geared up for a SLASHING of the industry...and all I got was some shameless promotion of a band that is signed to one of the reasons music is so horrible these days...BMG...and another who is probably very good...but is so connected into that same ugly system that it made my skin crawl to feel even the least bit anxious about her success....at least she is signed to a smaller label...
When you want the REAL story of the last 18 years...give me a ring.
Smokin Bassman
Miami, FL
Dear FRONTLINE,
The music businessís main problem is simple: itís the copy cat formula that has been around since I can remember. I remember in high school when the band Motley Crue broke. Soon enough every new band and even veteran acts like Kiss, Ozzy Osborne and Judas Priest started trying to look and sound like them. Then Bon Jovi got big and everyone wanted that polished pop sound and glam look.
Sure enough Guns and Roses came out and took everyone by surprise. You would think the music industry would have learned their lesson and tried to find the next big thing but instead we got a bunch of GnR clones and the established acts couldnít rip off their spandex and get rid of their keyboard players fast enough and start playing ìrawerî music.
If there is one thing to take hope is somewhere someone is playing something fresh and new. And just like Nirvana came in and swept ìpop metalî off the charts, and in turn the ìgrungeí clones were swept away by the ìsinger songwritersî (Hootie and the Blowfish, Alanis Morrestte) and they were swept away by the pre-produced groups (Spice Girls, Backstreet, Brittany and Justin) if you wait around long enough something you like will come back in style. At least long enough for the music industry to clone it over and over.
When will these execs realize that most of us donít listen to just one style of music? Very few people are just pop fans, or just country fans, or just Jazz fans. Why does this industry insist on binge us on vanilla until we purge on it and want chocolate, and then proceed to binge us on chocolate?
BTW: so the writer who asked,: Sarah Hudsonís record doesnít even come out until July 13th. Even then iTunes may not carry it.
Lorne Carter
Springdale, AR
Dear FRONTLINE,
I was also a part of the music retail industry for many years and watched its inevitable death. I agree with the others who have responded to the show stating the reasons for its demise are pretty clear cut; price and quality of music. The only salvation will be from the ones who originally valued music as an art. They will find the true artists by going back to the original way of thinking, looking to the independent labels for creativity. The monopoly game that the majors are playing is not conducive to finding the diamonds in the rough.
Tiffiny Neal
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Dear FRONTLINE,
Your show brought many perspectives to the story. But in my opinion it has EVERYTHING to do with talent and quality. Hip-Hop is the only new and fresh music out today- that is where the talent and joy is. Alternative music (what evolved from pop) died when the Smashing Pumpkins disbanded. It is going to take another breakthrough act like "Nirvana" to stir the next generation.
I'm sorry but Sarah H and Velvet Revolver (its bad enough the music is recycled but why insult Lou Reed?) are not the next generation.
Everyone thought kids would never read again because of video games until the Harry Potter phenomenon. TALENT.
The music business need to develop and recognize REAL quality talent. People (including me) WILL pay for that.
Mark Spaulding
Charlotte, NC
Dear FRONTLINE,
I expected better from frontline. Since you've missed the mark, here is my take on the death of music. In the late 80s the music industry flexed its muscles and forced the compact disc down the consumers throat. It was cheaper to produce and duplicate but the music industry raised the price in most cases 100%. So the LP that cost $7.99 in 1988 was to give way to the $21.99 CD. In 1986 you couldn't give away a CD to the average consumer.
The music industry ignored the rap/hip hop movement, rappers printed their own music and sold it. In 91 the music industry was focused on selling boy bands, female teen solo acts and anyone who wore plaid &/or flannel and played loud distorted guitar badly. This became boring really fast so we quit buying.
Nothing changed so most were not interested until the computer age allowed for the easy exchange of music. Why not eliminate the music industry, they ignored the consumer for at least a dozen years. Now, like the rappers before them, new artists sell self produced material at their shows or over the internet using sites like IUMA.com to promote themselves. They make more money per disc and therefore have less to sell to turn a profit, also they issue a better product in many cases, or no one would buy it.
M Pick
Somewhere, TN
Dear FRONTLINE,
Just as in the early 1950's with Rock and Roll and Pop music taking center stage and pushing out the "adult" recordings, the "industry" will re-invent itself. The same self promoting people like Alan Freed, Dick Clark and Morris Levy are already taking center stage to ring in this new era.
Timothy White (then editor and chief of Billboard Magazine) two weeks before his death in 2002 said that in the next two years the music industry will change in a way that we cannot imagine.
With large companies like Clear Channel owning the large radio areas they also are sleeping with the same industry monster. The flip side is radio will be a "dinosaur" soon when the FCC gives up all the analog channels to Celluar and HDTV for the bandwith. The channels were "given" away in the early 20th century. The FCC has already pre-sold these slices of air waves to the "bigger" companies. Say bye bye to AM & FM and TV!
We are at the tip of the iceburg of complete change. Who knows we musicians might be able to pay our bills again by playing the hits (an misses) at our local clubs.
This Frontline episode is a catalyst for healthy discussion for all of the above.
Pete Sengler
La Grange, Texas
Dear FRONTLINE,
it amazes me how arrogant the record industry is, and seems will always be. instead of trying to rectify the problems within the industry, they blame the consumer for their failure. it has been about five years since i have listened to the radio for more than ten minutes. (everything new sounds the same) it has been four years since i have bought a new record or cd. (if a cd costs only pennies to make, why should i pay more than fifteen dollars for it) i long for the "old" days when the music was full of static; the albums were big, bulky, and would scratch and brake; but the artists and the record industry were there to make a great sound....and making money was second nature.
kevin norris
canandaigua, new york
Dear FRONTLINE,
David Crosby stated that the industry was started and run by people who loved music, but it has always been about the money. Just look at Morris Levy of Roulette Records or many others who took writing credit from the true writers. Even Elvis and Parker did this. Frank Zappa once said that he never saw an audit in which money was not owed to the writer.
The music business has always been very rough and is just rough now that the product is also bad.
Bob Neff
Naples, FL
Dear FRONTLINE,
If it not available via Apple's iTunes I don't buy it. Had Sarah's CD been available on iTunes then I would have purchased it as soon as the Frontline was over. I would have loaded it onto my iPod, taken the dog for a walk and given it a serious listening. That impulse won't last all the way to the record store. Artists need to understand that. That need to embrace it.
Dan Corjulo
Avon, CT
Dear FRONTLINE,
About halfway through "The Way The Music Died," I felt it was no longer Frontline, but an infomercial for G&R as comeback kids and the daughter of a Hudson brother. It started off interesting, but somewhere in post production, your editors got starry-eyed about these stories of musicians getting pushed and pulled like taffy in the corporate conglomerate music machine. This would have been fine, if the editors, y'know, focused on the pushing and pulling by the machine.
A member of G&R admitting to suits that they now understand the value of a dollar after years or excess, I didn't know if I should cheer that those guys finally matured into adults, or cry at their loss of innocence. It's like they were trying to prove they could make a new album as successful as their previous brush with fame, only at a fraction of the cost. Are they selling music, or fabric softener? Or maybe just their souls.. That's where Frontline should have gone, but the harsh reality of the music industry just kinda lay there on the plate and the editors sorta picked at it, then moved on to whether or not Sarah Hudson looks good in a dress and high heels. Color me unimpressed. Y'know what? An entire hour interview with David Crosby by himself talking about his decades of experience in the music industry woulda been more interesting and insightful... and in saying that I am NOT suggesting you subject anyone to a whole hour of David Crosby talking.
I've been struggling this past week with radio. Haven't listened in years really, because I now buy mostly CDs from local Texas musicians and listen to that in my car or at work, but recently I've given local radio stations a try. Actually, I learned that a radio station I liked when I was a kid no longer exists. 97.1 KEGL in north Texas. It's gone. It's been replaced by "Sunny!" They now play the alleged best of the 60s through 80s, as do a half dozen other stations in this area. This music was okay to listen to in the 60s through 80s.
Music is alive and well here in north Texas if one knows where to look. New music. Good music. And it doesn't all twang, either. One just can't hear much new music on corporate owned radio stations, unless the new music is synthetic retreads of past successes. It's not that the music has died. RIAA is too busy taking past panflashes like Stone Temple Pilots and Guns & Roses and mushing them together into yet another frankenstein monster.
They won't LET the music they own and control die. That's the problem!
Zach Garland
Dallas, TX
Dear FRONTLINE,
Great program, I used to work for a local radio station in Allentown, PA. What has been lost in the radio industry, is the LOCAL influences. Today, with a conglomerate owning a thousand or more stations, the local musical influences, that were there before, are nonexistant. It's a sad day when MTV really creates or destroys a sound. Who knows if Elvis, or the Beatles would have survived in the current musical and broadcast environment.
Barry George
Allentown, pa
Dear FRONTLINE,
Great episode! My husband and I agree that music today has become a rampent series of cookie cutter pseudo-talent. Pseudo-talent is, frankly, too complimentry. It's good to see in this MTV "Free Your Mind (while we dictate what is cool)" era that someone is willing to address the issue of corporate piracy in the artists' arena. Though it would have been nice to see some struggling artists (without connected fathers) trying to make a go of it in the industry, the perspectives of an up-and-comer against those of a group who has been there and done that made for an interesting and surprisingly similar pair of profiles.
It is true that MP3s and file sharing are starting to influence the major record lables, and perhaps a follow-up episode is called for. We do not listen to modern music on the radio, so it was nice to hear about Velvet Revolver. We enjoyed what we heard, and plan on buying the album.
Monica Parkes
Butler, WI
Dear FRONTLINE,
Although your program was right on the money when it comes to "mainstream" music, you didn't look as deep as you could have. Without the right "look" you will never be heard on the radio or be seen on Mtv. However, there are bands and musicians out there with very successful careers who have never been on the radio. Take Phish, String Cheese Incident and Wide Spread Panic for example. I have NEVER hear any of these bands in mainstream media but if you know where to look you will find them. These examples are just one genre of many. Each crowd has its underground you just have to look!!!
Chris Reschke
Overland Park, kansas
Dear FRONTLINE,
I was in the music retail industry up until last January when my store was purchased and closed by a large corporation. I spent the last 15 years watching the events covered in "The Way the Music Died" unfold. I appreciate you making and airing this documentary but I must admit it brought on feelings of anger and sorrow to see it all recapped. I believe you understated the issue of the death of music retail and the role that the record labels played in destroying music retail. The labels chose to favor the large corporate retailers that were unwilling to work with them and ignored the smaller and regional retailers that were dying to cooperate and promote their new and developing artists. This resistance on the part of the labels ( in addition to downloading ) ultimately led to the extinction of the smaller music retailers. The disappearance of the specialty music retailer makes it ever more difficult for the consumer to find the music they are looking for. The large box retailers, as you mentioned, are only interested in selling albums and artists with established demand. All other artists can now only be found on the internet or with great difficulty at brick and morter retail. The "eye of the needle" that exists at radio also exists at retail. I myself, living in the New York City area, have to travel almost 40 miles to find a record store that carries developing artists. The labels burried themselves showing loyalty to retailers that did not care about their success. Keep telling this story, and maybe we can get our record stores back.
John Ramacca
Garnerville, New York 
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