You noe the music industry is not doing good when....

CHINA IMPORT IS FASTER THAN ORIGINAL LOCAL VERSION!

and...

POPULAR IS SELLING CHINA IMPORTS!!

Story goes, I went popular JE in an attempt to collect my pre-order Jay since I've had ppl who already collected theirs. IT WASNT IN YET! (I'm not gonna pre-order from them anymore man.) NVM the fact that it was already released on Sept 5 in other places in the world. Its supposed to be a global release! Unless SG belongs to the extra-terrestial region (I think so..)

They were playing Jay's new songs. So I fancy the albums are already in and I can psycho them to gimme earlier. Ends up, they were PLAYING CHINA IMPORTS!!

Can they even do dat?

I mean, its the same as playing pirated discs!!

Not many ppl would bother to analyse the cost behind the pricing that was charged. An album, from the design board to the consumers' hands, requires a substantiable amt of monetary input before it becomes realisticized (i'm freaking good at making new words. I think the correct word shld be "realised"). Cost of labour, cost of planning, cost of production, cost of royalties, cost of promotion, etc etc, are covered under the $19 package.

In comes the revolutionary Internet, with the almighty Napster. Take those and mix with speed-of-light connection, poor students, high standard of living, n greed lords. Divided by the forced closure of Napster, multiplied by Napster P2P spawns.

What do we get?

Drainage of creative talent (bcos there's not much money to be made surviving on passion, ppl now tend to practice the 3 Rs - Recycle, Reuse and R-cannot-rem-wat), rising CD prices (used to cost ard $17), commercialised packaging (throw in free DVDs, change version every 2 mths to skim hardcore fans) and artistes spending more time promoting than making good music.

Then comes the new invasion - China imports at $10. Simpler packaging, same, if not more, songs and definitely the cheaper price. They are jus like the legalised (and cheaper) pirated CDs, where even popular/gramaphone/MJ/sembawang can sell them.

Some consumers might think that, "Internet downloading is too risky, I might as well buy the cheaper China import", or that "Hey! I'm still supporting the music scene with the purchase of CDs (cheena ones) and not downloading them free!".

U're horribly WRONG! Buying China imported CDs do not, i repeat, DO NOT, do any good to the music industry. Esp the local scene. They're way cheaper than original press could be due to: -
1) low cost of labor
2) ripped off (without copyrites??)
3) Note the "Only for China distribution" at the back of the CD. Possibly it is for the enjoyment of the lower economy groups in China.

The confirmed point is, China imports does not contribute any royalty obligations to the composer, producer, lyricist, arranger, etc etc. The artiste might, if any, get only a small weeny bitsy amt of royalty. Thus buying China imports doesnt not = buying local press cds. Its contributing a big portion of the downfall of music industry actually.

China music companies produce them for China mkt. n we're so gian pun to buy them. Wat will the producers of these imports think? (HAHA! Jay's gonna bring me in big money from the misers over at SG! *snigger snigger*) Y shld we be so downgraded n be laffed at? We're supposed to be a first-world country aint we?

For the popular story, I asked the sales assistant,"Eh? Popular oso selling China imports now?" SA,"Ya, bo bian, record sales no good, market very competitive."

Huh!??!

See. That's the problem. The music industry is jus dropping into a ravine with smooth, steep walls that are impossible to climb out. As the economics/marketing rule goes, where there is demand, there will be supply. Consumers are switching over to China imports (actually for EVERYTHING), sellers will wan to carry the China imports to make money. And when more China imports infiltrate the market and becomes a common sight, more people will buy due to the accessibility. Soon local press will become the minority, have-to-dig-in-the-mess-then-can-find population.

The cycle gets worse, crushing companies on the way, robbing noobs of their chance to step into the music arena bcos the company does not wan to spend $$ taking the risk n would rather focus on their money tree.

There used to be only small roadside stores carrying China imports. I supposed there is a lax on some law which allows China imports. Kinda political if u're thinking that in the future, it will encourage more exports of other products to and from China.

Now China imports even have the leaders' advantage as the local press takes their time on packaging the goodies. It will jus tilt more ppl towards the $9.90 cds.

Its getting bad. But there are still so many idol-making programs going ard. Is it jus a bait thrown by music companies to garner a huge fanbase from the weekly "free" exposure on tv, eliminating all the cannot-make-its, leaving only the elites, with a strong support from fans, n then signing them on and producing albums for them.

Come to think of it, its quite a realistic scenario. With the local element thrown in, there will not be China imports to hinder, or even if there will be a cheena version, it would still be later than the local press. Companies do save loads of money this way! Low risk, high returns!

I'm still a non-supporter of idol-making programs anyway.

And even thou the music industry is looking darn cloudy, I wanna venture in with my lyrics.

n YAY!! ITS 8 SEPT!! JAYYYYYYY!!!~~~ waited so lonnnggg..