Stump Does Concert with 50 Cent, the Demise of Albums going Platinum: What's Going On Here?

This week I had the opportunity to explore the blogosphere and educate myself about some interesting things in the music industry. Both posts I decided to comment on were from the blog Idolator. I first read about an interesting concert pairing. We have all heard of shows where artists who do not fall into the same bracket play together, but the pairing of Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump and 50 Cent takes the cake for most ridiculous concert bill. Next, I read about some rather sad news in the music industry. It appears as though CD sales are so small that artists are having difficulty going platinum. This is obviously a result of file sharing and illegal music downloading. This is terrible because going platinum used to be a milestone for musicians, and now it looks like artists can only do this if they are popular culture icons like U2. For more recently successful musicians it looks like the opportunity to go platinum will disappear once the music industry initiates its new business plan providing free music for everyone. Below you can find links to the blogs and my comments.


"No, Patrick Stump, There's No Way to Make 50 Cent Credible"
Comment

I could not agree with you more. Tours with artists who clearly have extremely different core fan bases are a terrible idea when these artists are as well known as Patrick Stump and 50 Cent. However, this pairing may not be for favors to a record label or exposing new people to music. It is possible that they are touring together because they are unable to play their desired venues alone at this point in time. With the economy in shambles people are less willing to pay for over priced tickets, therefore, a good way for both Stump and 50 Cent to play large venues while making a profit is to tour together knowing that their fans may not like both of their sets. The Stump/50 Cent combo is just ridiculous in my opinion even though both are part of the popular music genre, just different ends of the spectrum. There may be a few people at this particular show that do not know anything but popular music and are fans of both, but a great amount of the people at the concert will, as you said, “go to the concession stand during [50 Cent’s set].” Also, this pairing is not the brightest choice for both because as a rock fan I know that pop/punk rockers are not typically big enough fans of club banger music to want to see it live. There’s a big difference between the mix on your CD or iPod and a concert. However, since we are talking about bands touring together, there is an interesting combo set to tour in the near future: Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction. This combo is unlikely because Nine Inch Nails produces electronica music and Jane’s Addiction is rock/funk, but the paring is understandable at the same time. You won’t have as many people “hating actively” during their sets if they are there to see just one of the acts. Both bands came up in the 80’s and 90’s, their music is more similar than the Stump/50 Cent pairing, and they probably share some of their audience members. Big name acts like 50 Cent and Patrick Stump should really tour with acts more similar to their own while at the same time different when they are making efforts to expand their fan bases.

"CD Sales: How Long Can They Go?"
Comment

It is sad that only mega-huge groups like U2 can have a shot at going platinum. File sharing and torrent downloads are killing the meaning of album sales. Since music is hardly ever purchased anymore album sales do not correlate with artists getting the masses to hear their music. U2 probably would have gone platinum already if it were not for illegal downloads. It is also compelling to think about how many artists would go platinum that are not as well known as U2, but since their demographic might be younger and more familiar with how to download music they do not sell albums at the same rate bands like U2 do. I think that file sharing, if it could be calculated, combined with album sales would a good way to judge if an artist’s music is prolific. Anyways, these things will not even matter in a few years. Labels are preparing to make music free through ad-supported models like Qtrax. There will be no such thing as albums going platinum, just download stats. Once music is free, download stats will not even matter since people will be able to download albums without having any sort of repercussion like a smaller wallet. Therefore, people will just download everything without a care, and the music industry executives will be raking in the money through the ads users have to see to get the music they want. I do not think you are outing yourself as an old school person for having these feelings. I am a college student who shares your same beliefs. It is hard to sit and watch the music industry make changes to its business plan as a result of file sharing and illegal downloads. Fifteen years ago, which is not really that long, the music industry was thriving, and awesome bands like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and artists like 2 Pac were doing great. Now, the quality of music has diminished since the major labels cannot take as many risks with whom they sign and promote. Album sales are sadly obsolete now, who knows what will replace them to generate the same stats and information.