February 2, 2006

The End of the 'Best Of' Discs?

Ann Althouse asks the vital question:

Should we care if iTunes is killing the marking for "best of" music collections?
My immediate response I don't care if best of collections fade into history. I don't buy them.

Let's, though, take this as a serious question and read the linked article. We need only read part way down the first page to see that Ann's question distorts the article which posits a hypothetical question:

What if fans who might have paid for a full album of "the very best" of an established act instead choose to pay substantially less and simply buy the very, very best song?
And, after discussing various aspects of the question they get to this:
In many instances, however, record executives say online sales do not appear to be hurting their best sellers.
It appears that for, at least the folks with a substantive set of work, the best ofs will be successful for some time more. And, if a one/two hit wonder's best of sales plummet to zero, well, great! This is as it should be and the saved money will be spent on something else.

Creative destruction in action.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006
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