My sentiments exactly!

Where are new musicians that actually produce the new music that's actually worth listening to?

I search hard and long for artists and tracks that I would want to hear even once. I haven't purchased more than a few CDs that were recorded in this millennium. Most of the new stuff I hear is has little more than 4/4 timing and 3 chord guitar riffs with party girl or pretty boy singing about their personal problems and angst.

What happened to the idea of compiling a set of songs (like an "album" - okay that dates me doesn't it?) that gave texture and story in words and sounds that could take you somewhere and back emotionally? What happened to musicians that had sufficient training to play a variety of styles and instruments and wove the lyrics with the instrumentals in songs lasting longer than 160 seconds?

I find that I am buying mostly electronica styles of music now as at least that can have some rhythm and texture but these are from indie artist selling at emusic.com. But it's frustrating because I would really to buy and enjoy new music a whole lot more. I just can't find anything worthwhile.

Joni Mitchell is quoted as saying that music is no longer "meditative" but instead "calculated" and it's calculated to pander to the stupid end of the masses. Then she goes on to say that "just how stupid do they think the masses are?" She mentions an advet for the record companies that says they aren't looking for talent anymore, just a certain look and a willingness to cooperate.

Maybe that's why music sales are tanking

And keep fucking up your customers, and then look at the figures... my oh my.. 40% down in sales..

OF COURSE you're loosing sales! thats what happens when you greedy bastards hike the prices of CD like there's no tomorrow! well guest what, today is the "tomorrow"!

You're applauding AT&T shitty practicing of traffic shaping? guess what.. that only advances innovation to bypass those tricks. You killed Napster? then Kazaa, eMule, eDonkey and other came. You killed Kazaa? then Bitorrent came. You're trying to kill Bitorrent? fine, the bitoreent "headless" feature came where you don't even need a web site with the torrents!

Buying music OTA might be a bit helpful to you, but as people understand that they only need to stick their cell phone to a USB port and transfer their music, they won't buy OTA because the price is way too high!

Music execs - you just don't get it! people are sick and tired of paying those super-high prices for music, so they'll copy and download from P2P and they don't give a flying fuck whatever you tell them it's totally wrong (and stealing from your artists and from the consumers by you is right? give me a freaking break!). In this game, lads, you're the looser.

PreP

On behalf of the public, I want:

1. DECENT quality recordings out for me to download when I want. That's high quality, so when I listen to the product I have just purchased I actually hear it properly on my new expensive sound system.

2. Freedom. Fuck subscriptions, I don't care about them. Charge me 50p or something for the song, and as long as I don't make it easily accessible for everyone to copy from me (putting it on BitTorrent etc.) you should ensure that I can put it onto a CD, or my phone, or my Creative MP3 player, or even onto another computer. DRM free please - When I pay for my music i'm paying for the right to listen to it when and where I want, using whatever technology I decide I want to use. i've paid for it, let me listen to it on what device I want when I chose.

3. Reasonable prices. Stop feeding us this crap. It's still costing around £8 for an album on iTunes - nearly the same as what Play.com charge. If they can charge £9, and you charge £8 - then what the hell is all that crap about distribution and media costs for? An artist is in a studio, send it electronically to the distributors (Napster, iTunes etc), job done. There's no comparision to the CD or cassette market, so stop pricing it like there is.

So in summary:

If I can get, for 50p a track (or £4.50 for an album) 320kbps quality tracks with no DRM then i'll stop borrowing mates CD's and ripping them, and I'll stop using BitTorrent.

Then, and only then will I be prepared to part my hard earn't cash - e.g. when the product and service is worth it.