Increased consumer spending on games means that the UK industry now generates greater revenues at retail than the music business, says the Entertainment Retailers' Association.
According to MCV, the trade organization's figures show that the games business was the second most valuable entertainment market at retail in 2007, and it is fast approaching the DVD industry.
The ERA says spending on games rose from £1,345m in 2005 to £1,719m in 2007. In comparison, spending on music during the same period fell from £1,839m to £1,417m as the industry was undermined by the music download culture, while spending on DVDs fell from £2,196m to £2,164m.
"Games have overtaken music massively this year - music revenues are down on last year's figures and game sales are huge in comparison now," said Kim Bayley of the ERA. "In years to come, games and DVD will vie to become the biggest market."
Noone will want to be a rockstars soon. There'll be young kids who want the glamorous job of game dev and it all started here.
Imagine it... Posters of Will Wright covering teenage girls walls, Peter molyneux being regarded as the "greatest artist of his generation" by stuck-up toffs. Boxart placed in museums in the fine arts section. England beating Germany in the EA, Fifa 2058, Xbox World cup final.
Us telling our grandchildren that "In my day we had sprites and were lucky if we had 3 lives let alone save games. Back when Gamers WERE REALL Gamers".
I'm all about the murder simulators. Nothing prepares you for killing someone IRL better than stabbing them in the face with a screwdriver in Manhunt 2.
Is it really that surprising though? The sheer number of consoles sold this generation can't make this a surprise.
Seriously, I haven't bought an album in 2 years. Only singles and that's it. I got tired of buying albums only to find myself listening to 2-3 tracks on the thing.
I don't think music sucks any more now than it did 10 years ago
Which neat little link forces me to pimp my own band, playing around London now and at the Cavern in Liverpool later this month. Woo! www.albanydown.com
Seriously, I haven't bought an album in 2 years. Only singles and that's it. I got tired of buying albums only to find myself listening to 2-3 tracks on the thing.
That just means you're now old & the only good music is in the good old days.
Plus kids today dont buy albums they just download them for free
Seriously, I haven't bought an album in 2 years. Only singles and that's it. I got tired of buying albums only to find myself listening to 2-3 tracks on the thing.
That just means you're now old & the only good music is in the good old days.
Plus kids today dont buy albums they just download them for free
Bah
Give me a Canibus track and a good old LL Cool J track for the ladies. Some Biggie, Some Tupac, some method man and Wu Tang.
None of this I can dance, I have rims and money sissy stuff *shakes cane*
And no more of these beats that sound like they were put together using a copy of Music 2000 on the PS1. I want proper instrumentals dammit *waves cane some more*
And these "Ipods," give me a good old properly tuned Marantz CD player with a superb DAC and proper sound mechanics any day. Compressed just doesn't sound the same *shakes cane once more*
Seriously, I haven't bought an album in 2 years. Only singles and that's it. I got tired of buying albums only to find myself listening to 2-3 tracks on the thing.
That just means you're now old & the only good music is in the good old days.
Plus kids today dont buy albums they just download them for free
Bah
Give me a Canibus track and a good old LL Cool J track for the ladies. Some Biggie, Some Tupac, some method man and Wu Tang.
None of this I can dance, I have rims and money sissy stuff *shakes cane*
And no more of these beats that sound like they were put together using a copy of Music 2000 on the PS1. I want proper instrumentals dammit *waves cane some more*
And these "Ipods," give me a good old properly tuned Marantz CD player with a superb DAC and proper sound mechanics any day. Compressed just doesn't sound the same *shakes cane once more*
*walks to door*
Remember when you were a kid & your parents said todays music is rubbish? Remember thinking you'd never get like that? Well its happening dude Stupid crap music of today! *grabs zimmerframe & walks slowly to door too*
If you look at the total figures, then they're largely unchanged between 2005 and 2007 when you add up Music, DVD and Games. That's pretty much what any sane person would expect - that money available for entertainment is not going to suddenly jump or fall by a massive amount, and will show rather more modest changes. The implication is instead that rather than spending their money on music, more people are choosing to spend their money on games. As a music fan, a movie fan and a gamer, I know that I have fewer qualms about spending ÂŁ20+ on a game than ÂŁ10+ on a DVD or CD. The simple reason for that being perceived value for money. Games and movies generally cost vastly more in production than a CD. They both require music as well as visual design and production, and storyboarding and so on. Games generally offer a greater duration of entertainment than a DVD, so I'm far more likely to find a game good value than a DVD. As a result, music seems overpriced compared to other entertainment media, and so I like others affecting this swing in the relative totals are voting with our feet and focussing on products that we feel offer value. I mentioned pirate downloads because that get's trundled out as the cause of dropping music revenues, but the above suggests another explanation.
Remember when you were a kid & your parents said todays music is rubbish? Remember thinking you'd never get like that? Well its happening dude Stupid crap music of today! *grabs zimmerframe & walks slowly to door too*
Oh no, I'm getting old
Time to go back on the scene and be with the "it" crowd
Great news for gaming. Perhaps finally people will take gaming more seriously and not look at it as something to keep the kids busy...
Sadly not, the Daily Mail et al will continue to decry gaming as the pursuit of a few spotty nerds locked in their bedrooms rather than as a mass market pursuit. Then again, looking at their (the media) stance on the people and numbers of people who play games the average gamer must be dropping about Ł20k on games a year to get the figures up to that level...
Of course they are, games are like 3 times the price of a CD.
That's a fair point, but at the other end of the spectrum, people are costing the games industry much more by downloading Ł50 games than they are costing the music industry by downloading Ł12 albums. (note that I don't live in the UK so prices are estimated)
What I mean is that by your logic the games industry also loses 3 times more than the music industry does every time someone downloads their respective produce. I think the two probably cancel each other out in the end when you factor in piracy, if that makes any sense at all. It does in my head...
Are they accounting for some of the artists that are taking the more intelligent route and simply selling their music themselves? I don't want to pay $15-20 for an album unless I absolutely have to, but I'll pay $5-10 to download a zip file of the tracks from your website.
As far as 'music today being terrible'? Let's face it, if you think all music being made by current artists is terrible, you're not paying attention. Turn off MTV, turn off the radio (unless you've got a station that actually plays more than the top 10) and check out some of the artists out there that don't bother with music videos or flashy promotions. Find a music blog and read up on what people who actually listen to music are saying. There's lots of people out there plugging music not because they get paid, but because they genuinely think it's an awesome song/album/etc and want other people to enjoy it. It's just like games. For every crappy half-baked title there's one out there that's genuinely worth your time.
This isnt surprising. Renouned games are getting big budget releases. I mean look at Halo 3, a Superbowl ad & on its release made more money than a chelsea player. It can only get better with GTA & the like.
Of course they are, games are like 3 times the price of a CD.
In a way true but **normal** dont play games while jogging, drving working etc, while alot of ppl listen to music doing such activities
You forgot lovemaking Music is vital for that *strokes slow jam collection*
With tripe like Soulja boy getting released im wouldnt be surprised if the music industry went down s**tter
That name sounds vaguely familiar
I've stopped watching the charts and the music channels. I might start now that BET is on Sky but that channel like all the others play the same songs around 90 times a day. I won't even comment on the radio, I swear the playlists they have are around 5 songs long
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*shakes cane once more*
