There has been a lot of discussion of illegal downloading on music and social networking sites lately, much of it originating with musicians. First let me state from the that I understand the impact of illegal music downloading on the music industry and the people who create the music. I obviously feel that if you are stealing a song you are eating into another human being's livelihood. That being said I also believe that pointing toward illegal downloading as the main reason for the decline in sales in our genre is like saying that the brown leaves cause root rot on a plant. This is such a high profile issue that it is easier to point the finger in that direction than dig deep and examine other factors that have had much more of an impact.

First, look at the demographics. The target audience for this music is far beyond the age of the people who do most of the illegal downloading. Google up some statistics and you will find two things: the fastest growing group of downloaders are "tweens" - the 8-12 set - and the main hotbed of activity is still college campuses. There is a slightly older group in the mix now because the Napster generation is closing in on 30 but the primary target audience for contemporary and smooth jazz is 35+ and to be realistic, for the last few years the radio version of the genre has been focusing on the 45-64. This is a group that has been way behind the curve when it comes to legally accessing music on the internet via streaming or purchasing from legitimate online retailers. If they are inept at doing it legally how could they work the more complicated illegal processes? If you are a boomer and you are reading this you are already more technologically astute than most of your peers because you are reading an online music magazine. If you are in the industry you are too. You use technology in the studio and/or in the process of marketing music. Look around though, you'll find that most older adults use the internet for work, family emails and sharing photos. That's about it, and most of them don't even feel comfortable with that. If someone is apprehensive about making their car payment online or signing up for a mailing list and has to have their kid lead them through the process of buying a song on iTunes they probably aren't going to be downloading P2P sharing software or dealing with torrents. Besides that, mature people are more likely to be conscious of the ethical issues and too busy to mess with it. This music does not target tweens, teens, and undergads. It appeals to an audience that for the most part has better things to do than spend hours in front of the computer stealing songs even if they took the time to learn how to do it. .

This one may hurt but quality of the product is a big factor. There is a lot of generic, formula driven music out there right now. Who wants to lay down cash for the same old same old. The decline in sales for jazz and smooth jazz music became noticeable in the late 90s, perfectly coinciding with the radio-influenced homogenization of the music. Bottom line - how long are consumers going to continue to invest in more CD's that sound just like the ones they already own. How many instrumental covers of a small group of old songs does a person want to own. How many versions of "Walk On By" does one need in their collection? How many times does a consumer who wants a sax CD end up with an album that is cluttered up with weak vocal songs that are not especially well sung or well written? To make it worse, the "singles", the songs that represent the artist and their music to the largest segment of the audience, are usually either the slowest and most nondescript tracks on the album or the cover songs. This has been done to fit into a radio format that basically no longer exists because listeners got bored and went elsewhere. What's  up with that? 90% of the time there are other songs that would better represent the artist and the album. Those would motivate a listener to want to hear more.

If people don't know about the music they can't purchase it. When a musician says "downloading is killing me" and follows it "I just do the record, after that I trust the label to get it out there," I want to hit them with either a sharp heavy object or a dose of reality. Record companies downsized and consolidated. They don't have the resources to do the type of promotional campaigns they used to do. That level of promotion is even more necessary now because there is so much product competing for attention. It is in the hands of the artists to come up with innovative ways to get their music in front of a wider audience. There are still people out there who are relying on radio and a small handful of brick and mortar retailers which will only work if you step into a the Hot Tub Time Machine and get transported to the 80's. Working the music is one part of this, educating fans on how to access the sites where music is streamed or sold is another, so is staying in contact with fans and encouraging them to spread the word. This is hard work but it has to be done, otherwise, no whining allowed. 

For every one adult consumer who plays on the dark side and steals music there are hundreds who are willing to pay when they find music that is compelling and exciting. Part one is delivering that kind of music, part two is making sure people know it's there and have a way to hear it, part three is letting them know how and where they can buy it and making it as easy as possible for them to do so. As of now only a handful of musicians are “working it” the way it has to be done in the post-radio/post-retail climate. Funny, these are the guys and gals that are on top of the charts right now and they are not the ones complaining about illegal downloading eating into their sales.