Arctic Charts

Ok. So I've been thinking about the Arctic Monkeys again (www.ArcticMonkeys.com).
Recently they turned down the opportunity to play on Top of the Pops + the Brits (a big award ceremony), shunning the opportunity to be exposed to millions of new potential fans around the world - spitting the face of the old school music industry. This may well be young Northern chtutzpah at its most extreme, and it may well have cost them a few album sales, however I think they might be onto something . . . and may not be the bunch of naive Monkeys they look.

Why?
Well, because the old school music industry is in turmoil at the moment, and playing catchup to the young super-geeks BIG time. This includes Mr uber-geek himself Steve Jobs, creator of le iPod. As although the big labels have seemed to have stopped the desperate downward curve of record sales by offering downloads, all areas of the industry don't seem to have everything as under-control as they'd like.

Key examples for me are: Top of the Pops + the Official Charts.
Both of these formats are now haemoraging viewers / listeners, as less and less young people are participating in music via these top-down mainstream channels, and instead plumping for the likes of MySpace (www.MySpace.com) + mobile media + reality style shows.
In the past, young people from around the UK would be glued to their radios on a Sunday evening to check out the week's number One. In a similar vein, we'd all tune into TOTP on a Thursday evening to check out the latest bands performing "live". These were two key cultural events for a young (and cool) Englishman.

Now the way people interact with music is completely different, and completely baffling for the former big players of the music industry. Young people are no longer tuning into TOTP and the Charts.
It's not just a case of media fragmentation, but a shift in the way people consume and interact with music. People's relationship with music brands has fundamentally. As new media channels mature, this new media seems to be heralding a speedy new music cultural revolution, highlighted by people comsumer music in a way that suits them (i.e. songs and "playlists"not albums) and in a much more involved way (e.g. people supporting the grass-roots vibe).
Of course this isn't a completely new phenomena - we all made our tape mixes when we were younger - however by the very nature of the ease / speed of modern media, the whole process is exagerrated a million fold.

So what are the big labels and music brands supposed to do? Play catch up + try to get to grips with how technology influences consumption. The Music industry isn't the only one in turmoil, just take a look at Kodak and the attack of Digital cameras . . .
One thing I am interested in seeing is what Chris Cowey (ex-producer of Top of the Pops) does with his newly slated music TV programme. I'm also interested in seeing what MTV do. I haven't heard what the music shift is having on them, however MTV doesn't look as invincible as it did a couple of years back. And of course the Monkeys - I wonder what they'll do next? Perhaps Chris Cowey should be asking the same thing . . .