End Of An Era

The end of an era is at hand. As an old philosopher once said”Everything must come to an end”. This year at MIDEM 2009 two things were in their death throes, completely bringing an end to this portion of the music industry.
.
First the CD has become an object of the past worldwide as witnessed by the poor attendance of physical distribution companies, CD manufacturers and record labels. MIDEM director Dominique Leguern said "It's not a music industry crisis, it's a CD crisis." This does not mean that the music business is suffering as many experts have criticized. Many segments of the music industry saw incredible growth such as digital delivery, publishing, and licensing.

At MidemNet the business had said that within the next two (2) years the only people still making and playing CD’s will be old people. The idea of even using a CD player seems to be ancient and absurd.

The second and most shocking portion of the music industry was the worldwide executive view about Gangsta Rap. Thugs, gangsta’s, hoes, record pools, dj’s and more should be aware of the new condition of music outside of the United States. International distributors, labels, publishers, wholesalers and one stops no longer have an interest in Gangsta RAP music from the USA.

I met with companies from China to the UK, Cuba to Russia and onto one company had an interest in American Gangsta rap music. Every country said basically the same thing “American rap is violent, filled with overt sexual images and not conducive to the quality of life in our countries. We would rather sell local and national based acts from our own country whose musical messages condone better ideas”. I have heard specifically from the Italians and French that the R&B they want from America should not contain any rap lyrics.

Looks like keeping it real has finally caused the rap industry the pain and drama that is written about in the music they created.