Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

Katy Perry’s new album sold fewer than 300,000 copies during the first week when it was recently introduced.

Not even 300,000 copies and includes digital.

And the first week of album sales is usually the best week.

Lady Gaga is out hyping her ArtPop album because the pressure is on this huge star to keep the hits coming.

Gaga even has to become Stefani Germanotta again if that will help.

It’s not just that the album is dead – it’s that no one wants to pay for music anymore.

And it’s no longer about piracy.

It’s about a lack of interest in owning music.

We did this to ourselves – the music and radio industries and Steve Jobs assisted by playing to the paranoia of record execs who feared Napster more than recording a bunch of stiffs.

This is a Spotify and Pandora world.

Radio doesn’t make hits not because people don’t listen to radio – that too – but because the public’s attitude toward music has changed so much in the last 12 years that there is no going back.

Going forward, everything about music – the one thing we’ve always taken for granted – is about to change again.

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