MOLI VIEW™

Last week, the DVD of the Transformers movie sold 8.3 million copies. Albums of recorded music — all albums of recorded music — sold 7.9 million copies, according to SoundScan. (This measure ignores some music sales, but not many.)

Breathe.

Although this is a blog about technology, I would like to pause to express my outrage over the fact that we live in a society where a movie about robots that turn into cars — cars that turn into robots? — sold more than rock, hip-hop, country, jazz, and every other genre of music combined. The new Springsteen album alone is better than Transformers, and most of his songs feature cooler cars. What's Optimus Prime compared to a '69 Chevy with a 396?

To be clear, I'm no snob. I like my share of disposable pop in every medium. I saw Transformers and liked it, especially the special effects. If robots really did turn into cars, the movie was scrupulously accurate about exactly how they would do so. But I don't understand the urge to see the movie again, let alone on a small screen where said effects look less impressive.

Which brings me back to the subject of technology. There are many reasons for the decline in album sales, but the primary one is the easy availability of free music online. There's also a perception that albums are overpriced relative to DVDs, but I think that attitude stems from the fact that music is easily available for free, while movies still aren't. Everything is worth the price that people are willing to pay for it — and that equation changes when there's a free alternative.

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