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NET PROFIT
Listed under: Comments
Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
I’m thinking of starting a new industry self-help group: Luddites Anonymous.
I consider myself pretty tech savvy and am definitely an early adopter. I have to have the latest Apple product, I bought a plasma TV when they really were too expensive to be considered a sensible purchase and my first digital SLR was bought when 6-megapixels was cutting edge! Nothing unusual there in our industry – I’m sure there are many of you who can associate with that kind of buyer behaviour. But, I have to admit it, I am a secret luddite, and I’m sure I’m not the only one out there.
The age of the download is well and truly with us, I know that, and yet I still can’t bring myself to stop buying and listening to CDs and vinyl. True, I have ripped all my CDs to my iTunes software and I do stream them wirelessly to my Apple TV, so I can listen to them through the home cinema system, and I transfer them to my iPod. But, it’s unthinkable that I would connect the computer to the Hi-Fi system and listen to the digital copies of my CDs rather than the real thing.
I know I could buy a Sooloos, a HDX or a DS and have bit-perfect copies of my CDs, with all the album artwork and artist information I could ever want. Then I could start buying High Definition downloads, and I know the music would sound fabulous, as I’ve heard all these products and others and they’re great. But, and here’s where the contradiction in my character comes in, I’m not ready to make the leap away from tangible media. However, many people are and I’ve no doubt that one day I will do so; meanwhile, I’ll keep doing my bit to help the CD industry.
downloads on the up
It was reported by the BPI this week that total album sales have hit an all-time low, with a 3.5% drop in 2009, the fifth year running that they have declined. In fact, CD album sales are down a fifth since 2004, which is an awful lot – approximately 30-million less CDs sold last year than just five years ago. However, there has been a massive 56% rise in album downloads, which helped, somewhat, to mitigate the overall reduction. Just a couple of days earlier, the BPI also released the figures for singles sales for 2009. A record number of 152-million singles were purchased during the year (up from 115-million in 2008), and so we can safely say that interest in recorded music is definitely not in decline. The staggering statistic here is that a massive 98% of these single sales were digital downloads.
The odd thing, though, is the love affair with the album that still seems to exist, despite the reduction in sales. The National Portrait Gallery is holding an exhibition on album photography from the 60s and 70s, and the Royal Mail has just published its classic album covers stamps – and very nice they look too. But it is telling that the average age of the albums chosen is 21 years, with the oldest being the 1969 Rolling Stones album, Let it Bleed, and the youngest being Coldplay's, decidedly middle-of-the-road (you're being kind – Ed.), Rush of Blood album from 2002. They are clearly aimed at the kind of people who still buy CDs and not the download generation, who probably don’t post that many letters anyway, preferring to communicate by email, MSN and Twitter.
new to networks?
“Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?” wrote Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris. Progress cannot be stopped; it’s not always better, but it will happen and we must be ready for it. That is why BADA has developed a suite of courses that helps equip members of our profession with the skills needed to prosper in a quickly developing market. One such course is the newly launched Netcraft, which teaches the basics of networking to Hi-Fi retailers. As album and single downloads continue to replace physical media and the audiophile market embraces High Definition audio downloads, bit-perfect CD rippers and the like, the ability to integrate such products into Hi-Fi systems is going to be an essential skill set.
Netcraft starts with an assumption of zero knowledge about networks and takes the candidates through the basics. The course outline states:
Netcraft has been created to develop key computer networking skills for those who specify, install or configure networking devices in customers' homes. Audio and video devices are now regularly connected to computer networks for internet radio, file streaming and control. Adding network devices without fully understanding how networks function often leads to installation nightmares, unhappy customers and considerable loss of profit. Netcraft provides the knowledge and understanding needed to ensure installations go smoothly and customers are delighted.
It may sound a long way from the Hi-Fi systems that we are all familiar and comfortable with, but we need to be prepared for the future. The music buying public are not being discouraged by the move from physical media to downloads – far from it, as the BPI sales stats show – and neither should we. Some of our customers may well be more keen to embrace a server based future than some of us, but that’s no reason why we shouldn’t be as knowledgeable as we can be about the new technologies.
If you want to be recognised as the expert by your customers, then you owe it to yourself and your business to get up-to-speed with the future. Why not drop us a line and find out more about Netcraft and how it could give you and your staff a real advantage.
And if you want to come to the inaugural Luddites Anonymous meeting...
Contact: +44 (0)20 8150 6741 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.bada.co.uk
The age of the download is well and truly with us, I know that, and yet I still can’t bring myself to stop buying and listening to CDs and vinyl. True, I have ripped all my CDs to my iTunes software and I do stream them wirelessly to my Apple TV, so I can listen to them through the home cinema system, and I transfer them to my iPod. But, it’s unthinkable that I would connect the computer to the Hi-Fi system and listen to the digital copies of my CDs rather than the real thing.
I know I could buy a Sooloos, a HDX or a DS and have bit-perfect copies of my CDs, with all the album artwork and artist information I could ever want. Then I could start buying High Definition downloads, and I know the music would sound fabulous, as I’ve heard all these products and others and they’re great. But, and here’s where the contradiction in my character comes in, I’m not ready to make the leap away from tangible media. However, many people are and I’ve no doubt that one day I will do so; meanwhile, I’ll keep doing my bit to help the CD industry.
downloads on the up
It was reported by the BPI this week that total album sales have hit an all-time low, with a 3.5% drop in 2009, the fifth year running that they have declined. In fact, CD album sales are down a fifth since 2004, which is an awful lot – approximately 30-million less CDs sold last year than just five years ago. However, there has been a massive 56% rise in album downloads, which helped, somewhat, to mitigate the overall reduction. Just a couple of days earlier, the BPI also released the figures for singles sales for 2009. A record number of 152-million singles were purchased during the year (up from 115-million in 2008), and so we can safely say that interest in recorded music is definitely not in decline. The staggering statistic here is that a massive 98% of these single sales were digital downloads.
The odd thing, though, is the love affair with the album that still seems to exist, despite the reduction in sales. The National Portrait Gallery is holding an exhibition on album photography from the 60s and 70s, and the Royal Mail has just published its classic album covers stamps – and very nice they look too. But it is telling that the average age of the albums chosen is 21 years, with the oldest being the 1969 Rolling Stones album, Let it Bleed, and the youngest being Coldplay's, decidedly middle-of-the-road (you're being kind – Ed.), Rush of Blood album from 2002. They are clearly aimed at the kind of people who still buy CDs and not the download generation, who probably don’t post that many letters anyway, preferring to communicate by email, MSN and Twitter.
new to networks?
“Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?” wrote Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris. Progress cannot be stopped; it’s not always better, but it will happen and we must be ready for it. That is why BADA has developed a suite of courses that helps equip members of our profession with the skills needed to prosper in a quickly developing market. One such course is the newly launched Netcraft, which teaches the basics of networking to Hi-Fi retailers. As album and single downloads continue to replace physical media and the audiophile market embraces High Definition audio downloads, bit-perfect CD rippers and the like, the ability to integrate such products into Hi-Fi systems is going to be an essential skill set.
Netcraft starts with an assumption of zero knowledge about networks and takes the candidates through the basics. The course outline states:
Netcraft has been created to develop key computer networking skills for those who specify, install or configure networking devices in customers' homes. Audio and video devices are now regularly connected to computer networks for internet radio, file streaming and control. Adding network devices without fully understanding how networks function often leads to installation nightmares, unhappy customers and considerable loss of profit. Netcraft provides the knowledge and understanding needed to ensure installations go smoothly and customers are delighted.
It may sound a long way from the Hi-Fi systems that we are all familiar and comfortable with, but we need to be prepared for the future. The music buying public are not being discouraged by the move from physical media to downloads – far from it, as the BPI sales stats show – and neither should we. Some of our customers may well be more keen to embrace a server based future than some of us, but that’s no reason why we shouldn’t be as knowledgeable as we can be about the new technologies.
If you want to be recognised as the expert by your customers, then you owe it to yourself and your business to get up-to-speed with the future. Why not drop us a line and find out more about Netcraft and how it could give you and your staff a real advantage.
And if you want to come to the inaugural Luddites Anonymous meeting...
Contact: +44 (0)20 8150 6741 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.bada.co.uk
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