I haven’t seen any official figures on it, but I’d venture to guess that entertainment advertising in periodicals such as music magazines and Sunday newspapers will drop or has dropped, and it will shift emphasis.  Rather than promoting CD sales, the emphasis will shift to the areas mentioned earlier. Merchandise and live performances (which, by the way, are going up, up, up, with no ceiling in sight). 

Further, with advertising rates for electronic advertising much lower overall, not to mention more effective, timely, and more easily redirected, I’d guess we’ll be seeing many more drastic changes than we’ve already seen.  With the lead-time that print publications require, it’s a no-brainer.  By the time a print ad is redesigned, rewritten, graphics added, edited, matted and whatever else is involved in the process, the CD being touted could be a couple months old. 

Even some of the “geniuses” in the record companies can understand this.  Because we already know that some recording executives were given their jobs based solely on the fact that it’s your sister’s doofus kid who can’t hold a job otherwise, and you hired him so you wouldn’t have to listen to him, your sister, her husband, or your mother.

With any luck, he’ll now be the one asking if you want fries with that.  If he can even hold the job, that is.

Another potential earth-moving issue is that now, live entertainment companies such as Live Nation are going head-to-head with the record companies, facing off for what each sees as a goldmine.  The changing dynamic here will mean bigger risks for all the businesses concerned, less hassle for the performers, but a much bigger payoff for all.  If, and this is a very big if, the companies like Live Nation have put their money on the right horses. 

The payoffs will be bigger, absolutely.  But so will the losses, should something go wrong. And don’t forget Murphy’s Law, and my variations on it:  Things that can’t possibly go wrong, will.  Things that can’t possibly lose, will, and at the worst possible time, and with the worst possible consequences. 

Now that we’re getting a handle on the problems with the music business, let’s see what we da people can do about Shrub, Eye-rack, the cost of saltines, and the rest of that stuff. 

Should be a piece of cake, right?  Like the natives in your local say, “Absotively!”