So Many Haters: Another Music Industry Death Report

In a New York Times op-ed piece Saturday, Charles Blow declared that the music industry (by which he means the recording part of the music business) will cease to exist "before Madonna's 60th birthday."

According to Blow, people are going to stop buying music because they can stream it for free online. But the music streaming companies aren't the killers here: they're new customers. They have to get their content somewhere; if labels stop recording, streaming services will have nothing new to play.

Also, people are still buying music. They still like their iPods. And they still like having control over their playlists. They may not buy as much in the future, and may not buy for the same reasons as before (for example, they may not be willing to shell out $20 for an entire CD of junk just to get the one hit song), but they will buy.

So don't stick a fork in the recording industry yet. It's far from done.

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