Refuting Liebowitz: Part 2

Time to get back to my analysis of the completely ridiculous paper written by Stan Liebowitz.

On page 8, Liebowitz makes this argument:

"...the activity of downloading files seems less likely to be a substitute for listening to prerecorded music, whereas listening to radio is an activity that can substitute for listening to prerecorded music. The three hours per day spent listening to radio are three hours that cannot be spent listening to prerecorded music. Since listening to prerecorded music generally requires the purchase of the prerecorded music, the more time individuals spend listening to radio the less time spent listening to prerecorded music and the smaller the volume of purchases of prerecorded music."

Have you ever listened to a CD more than once? Or, do you buy a new CD every time you listen to prerecorded music? That's a ridiculous question, of course. But Liebowitz seems to think that music fans would answer "yes" to the second question. His point would be valid if music were a pay-per-use product. But, it's not. Listening to prerecorded music does not require the purchase of the prerecorded music. Once the CD is sold, the profit is the same no matter how many times one listens to it. So, while it's true that I can't listen to my favorite CD while I'm listening to the radio, that lost time doesn't eat into the label's profits. They already have my money. But, boy, wouldn't the music industry love to figure out a way to charge fans every time they listened to a song?

After several pages detailing how TV, the movie business and the VCR affect each other, Liebowitz makes an interesting point on page 13:

"...television delivered a powerful blow to the movie industry. The movie industry was mature when television became popular in the 1950s and was popular in a way that is hard to imagine today. In the 1930s and 1940s...the average American went to the movie theater approximately 30 times per year, compared to the current frequency of approximately five times per year. It is clear that the frequency of movie attendance was far greater prior to television than it is now."

Not sure if the movie industry's profit percentage was impacted, but attendance sure seems to be. I haven't researched it, but my gut tells me that the movie biz moved towards releasing fewer movies a year. The movies studios began to merge with each other and changed the way they did business. Theoretically, one big movie could draw a much larger audience than several smaller movies. Then the revenues would still be there for the studios. But, fewer released movies would certainly impact attendance. And where might people have found out about these larger "Event" movies? Probably TV spots.

Liebowitz goes on for a few more pages about TV and movies. While reading those pages I began to wonder about the inflation of movie ticket prices and concession prices and how it affected attendance. Taking the whole family to the movies in 1947 might have been an easier task financially than it was in later years.

Of course, none of this is relevant to radio's relationship with the music business. So, up soon, I'll get back to the matter at hand. Liebowitz really drops some doozies in later pages.