Is Old Music Killing New Music?

Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking.

This is a subject that I have been alert to since my son told me that rock doesn't really exist anymore, that it died with Kurt Kobain's suicide, that popular music has fragmented into a million pieces. I looked it up when he first said that to me some years ago and damn if it wasn't true. 

Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling.  All the growth in the market is coming from old songs. (emphasis in original)

That is what I cannot understand. Nature abhors a vacuum, right? Capitalism certainly abhors a market vacuum. Why isn't "the working musician" giving his/her audience what they want to hear?

The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams...The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.

I encountered this phenomenon myself recently at a retail store, where the youngster at the cash register was singing along with Sting on “Message in a Bottle” (a hit from 1979) as it blasted on the radio. A few days earlier, I had a similar experience at a local diner, where the entire staff was under 30 but every song was more than 40 years old. I asked my server: “Why are you playing this old music?” She looked at me in surprise before answering: “Oh, I like these songs.”

So...?
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The entire business model of the music industry is built on promoting new songs. ...Yet all the evidence indicates that few listeners are paying attention.

Okay, I see what this "new reporter" is doing. This is college thesis writing. Half of this paper is giving a thousand examples of evidence that there is a problem because he's not sure why there is a problem.

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Can you imagine how angry fans would be if the...NBA Finals were delayed? 

Yeah, I can actually. Dude, are you clueless?

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... The people running the music industry have lost confidence in new music. ... ...that is exactly what’s happening. The moguls have lost their faith in the redemptive and life-changing power of new music. How sad is that?

Oh here we go, the problem is the music industry. It's their job to find the Next Big Thing--and  it's out there!--but the industry moguls are stuck in their ways and not doing their jobs. It's a circular argument which avoids what the working new musician is doing, and not doing. It's putting the shoe on the wrong foot. The question is "Why are the 'working musicians' not inspiring listeners?"

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The problem isn’t a lack of good new music. It’s an institutional failure to discover and nurture it.

See? Oh my God. No, no, no--wrong foot again. Substitute "popular" for "good" and you've got the same old wrong foot. There is undoubtedly "good" new music, the problem for the new music industry and the musician working in new music is that nobody's listening. Buddy, instead of asking the staff at your diner “Why are you playing this old music?” ask her, "Why aren't you playing this new music?" She will look at you in surprise before answering: “Oh, I don't like those songs.”

Not worth your time, or mine.