The music industry is dying due to incompetent executives incapable of hearing mass appeal sounds.
Working in it must be awful because there's no enthusiasm, ideas, imagination.
This forum gets NO tips anymore; just loads of stupid Russian spam and stupid women punting for customers.
That's because it was one of the first sites; always hugely visited; vital for an exciting, vibrant music world.
I'm tempted to call it a day and just retain the far more visited (these days) Your Views site (one thread got 23,222 views in ten minutes over there).
As we approach THIRTY YEARS online - why bother?

The industry visitors Tipsheet used to get were people from an earlier era. How likely is it that younger music business people would be interested nowadays?

Very unlikely sadly. I just wish they had their own place to go, encouraging, criticising, spreading the word. It seems they don't.

JK2006 wrote:
Very unlikely sadly. I just wish they had their own place to go, encouraging, criticising, spreading the word. It seems they don't.

In business you have to get rid of the old at times with a heavy heart. I would say close it down JK, then seen see what the responses are.

Steve Hoffman message boards are always flooded.

forums.stevehoffman.tv/

Probably yes.

Having it all in one place may mean more views for the music posts.

Thank you Giles - a very good point!

So far, sadly, the reaction appears to be YES, shut it down. There are very few Mass Appeal hits or artistes these days (last one was some years ago - Baby Shark). The industry has no executives anymore with imagination or energy or ideas or - extraordinary - ears.

Watching the Mercury's - always an agony - showed just how uninteresting music has become. More specialist - yes - but in each area the music is less mass appeal and less good. Internationally it's equally true. Listen to the hundreds of radio stations - every single one sounds exactly as it did 40 years ago, only less inventive. Imagine a new Kenny Everett this century. No chance. What's No1? Who cares? Record label CEO's? Bean counters. No fun. No enthusiasm.

Hi JK, I suppose it's time to wave goodbye to the Tipsheet Messageboard as the record business is so different today than how it was back when it wasn't so over saturated with content..

Todays charts don't mean anything much.. the only real sign of popularity is the Spotify and Apple Music and YouTube music charts as that's what people are listening to..

Making a careered and earning a living from streaming music is no easy task.. everyone is competing with the 60,000 + tracks that are added to Spotify (let alone the other platforms) every day plus the entire history of recorded music that's also up on the streaming services... so it's like walking into a shop with an endless supply of stock on the shelves and then trying to make your decision on what to buy, in the case of music, deciding on what to listen to..

Having said that, I still love the recorded music business.. at least recording songs is so easy and affordable now... everyone that has an iPhone has a studio in their pocket with GarageBand.. and of course many produce tracks on laptops using Logic Pro, Cubase Pro and the other DAW's.

So the studio business and the session musician business has changed dramatically, as has the monetisation of pre-recorded music.

dav wrote:
Hi JK, I suppose it's time to wave goodbye to the Tipsheet Messageboard as the record business is so different today than how it was back when it wasn't so over saturated with content..

Todays charts don't mean anything much.. the only real sign of popularity is the Spotify and Apple Music and YouTube music charts as that's what people are listening to..

Making a careered and earning a living from streaming music is no easy task.. everyone is competing with the 60,000 + tracks that are added to Spotify (let alone the other platforms) every day plus the entire history of recorded music that's also up on the streaming services... so it's like walking into a shop with an endless supply of stock on the shelves and then trying to make your decision on what to buy, in the case of music, deciding on what to listen to..

Having said that, I still love the recorded music business.. at least recording songs is so easy and affordable now... everyone that has an iPhone has a studio in their pocket with GarageBand.. and of course many produce tracks on laptops using Logic Pro, Cubase Pro and the other DAW's.

So the studio business and the session musician business has changed dramatically, as has the monetisation of pre-recorded music.

Interesting point Dav,

I can't be bothered with streaming services or downloads. I still go and buy and pysical copies it's sounds better, and I pay the price for it. People show me their playlists I show them my collection some become in awe. I can show them an obscure country rock or some rare metal LP that's not on CD or Spotify.

I am still not convinced on the new 180g vinyl sounds any better to the CD but I will go for the cheapest option when I buy music. I don't like new mixes nor things that cleaned up too much. A friend got me Pet Sounds www.turntablelab.com/products/the-beach-...stereo-180g-vinyl-lp I don't like the pressing at all.

I want to hear some kind rawness in the recording, remember when it was recorded it was using what they had at the time. I want to hear how it should have been heard, not what they want us to hear. When I play Pet Sounds I still go for the CD which I bought years and years ago. I have an Alabama set where the songs have been cleaned and remastered, it sounds way too polished and too loud. So again, it sounds way too clean, and it sounds shit. So when I play Alabama albums I go for the vinyl.


I am new to the Tipsheet, it can be interesting, but the replies only get a couple.

Yet, Steve Hoffman message boards seems to be the go-to place.

Hi Green Man,

You make some very good points.. Up until a few years ago I'd built up a great Vinyl, CD & Cassette collection of music from when I was around 14 till recent times..
Over 40 years of collecting all this music.. and now, to be honest I don't buy physical product.. I think one reason is that I'm trying not to add to my clutter..

As a kid I used to love looking at the record labels on the disc's and wondering about the writer and producers names and who they were..

Albums generally always had lot's of liner notes detailing the studios, engineers, session players as well as the producers and writers...

A physical collection was also a statement about ourselves.. told our friends where our interests lay.

I agree about how re-mastering of records often ruins the sound.. especially when the mastering engineer add tons of compression and limiting so that everything flatlines to just a feather under zero dB maximised to the max. The dynamics of the original recordings get lost in the process..

Alas, this is the new world we live in..

I would say no, but I probably wouldn't be able to justify that, not popping into the Tipsheet as often as I should.

dav wrote:
Hi Green Man,

You make some very good points.. Up until a few years ago I'd built up a great Vinyl, CD & Cassette collection of music from when I was around 14 till recent times..
Over 40 years of collecting all this music.. and now, to be honest I don't buy physical product.. I think one reason is that I'm trying not to add to my clutter..

As a kid I used to love looking at the record labels on the disc's and wondering about the writer and producers names and who they were..

Albums generally always had lot's of liner notes detailing the studios, engineers, session players as well as the producers and writers...

A physical collection was also a statement about ourselves.. told our friends where our interests lay.

I agree about how re-mastering of records often ruins the sound.. especially when the mastering engineer add tons of compression and limiting so that everything flatlines to just a feather under zero dB maximised to the max. The dynamics of the original recordings get lost in the process..

Alas, this is the new world we live in..

I have 2 very good friends in Long Island, who are massive Beatles fanatics.

They hate how the new re-mastering has too much loud bass, same with The Wings reissues. I have not heard them the new reissues because I am not a fan, I would not know what to look out for. However I take my friends words and ears.

I have ordered them the new Revolver release for their Christmas presents. I will be interested to hear their views.


I have ordered KISS - Creatures Of The Night reissue. I will probably be disappointed in the new mix. However I got it for my Kiss collection. The album is mostly session staff not Kiss.

JK2006 wrote:
The music industry is dying due to incompetent executives incapable of hearing mass appeal sounds.
Working in it must be awful because there's no enthusiasm, ideas, imagination.
This forum gets NO tips anymore; just loads of stupid Russian spam and stupid women punting for customers.
That's because it was one of the first sites; always hugely visited; vital for an exciting, vibrant music world.
I'm tempted to call it a day and just retain the far more visited (these days) Your Views site (one thread got 23,222 views in ten minutes over there).
As we approach THIRTY YEARS online - why bother?

Hi

I used to subscribe to The Tipsheet back in the day, when it was a paper publication.

The online version has nothing to offer at this stage.

I am amazed that you claim one thread of Yours Views got 23,222 views in 10 minutes. It is simply not possible that it can be that popular. If it was, it would indicate a massive number of people are hanging on your every word, and they are not. 23K views in 10 minutes requires about 40 people a second to visit. Not buying it.

Similarweb.com's analysis of the site points out that Google Analytics data on the site shows fewer than 5,000 visits a month, so having 23,000 looking at a thread in 10 minutes is pure fantasy.Looking at the first three pages for recent topics on the Yours Views pages, no thread has attracted more than 23 posts - from a mere seven participants including the host - which would be improbably low for a site where one thread is supposedly so popular. And let's not forget that if a thread attracts 23K views in 10 minutes, it must attract a massive amount more in 24 hours.

Thousands seem to view every thread on here too but virtually nobody posts anymore except spam. I think people now use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook for making comments and check sites like KingOfHits to read, not write.

Completely fanciful stats, as proved by any freely available analytics tool. I would estimate this website enjoys regular engagement with less than half a dozen users - it would frankly be easier to run it as a WhatsApp group chat.

Thank you Barney for your valuable contribution.

Stupid Barney doesn't realise - times have changed and whilst when back in the last century we got hundreds of posts for the threads these days visitors read here and post in places like Twitter instead.

GM is right here - there must be many who visit for info. Can you share the stats, JK?

The visits to the Tipsheet board have shrunk and the vast majority are now spam. For Your Views they have exploded - most of the KingOfHits visits now come for that forum; reading but not posting.

hedda wrote:
GM is right here - there must be many who visit for info. Can you share the stats, JK?

Another fucker wrote that Hedda. However I will take credit for it.