Songs will have to improve to survive in the digital era

Music Week, July, 2004 by Andy McQueen

Let's start at the beginning. Pop music is by definition popular. The means of delivery to its audience is unimportant--the connection with the consumer remains the vital issue.

The first pop video was released 74 years ago, in April 1930. It wasn't Elvis or The Beatles, but the first of the Looney Tunes series, which was designed to promote the vast Warner Bros music library and was followed every month by one promo after another. A year later, this relentless over-exposure was extended to include the Merrie Melodies series because, as every good music exec knows, once you have a winning formula, it is obligatory to squeeze it to death.

Today, if the record business has an overpowering weakness it is net simply pirates and KaZaA users. It may be more to do...