Posted on 01/16/2009 5:49:10 PM PST by Wolfstar
PARIS: Music sales worldwide fell by about 7 percent last year as another sizable jump in digital sales failed to make up for a deepening decline in the compact disc market, according to John Kennedy, chief executive of the industry's main international trade group.
Revenue from music sold over the Internet, via mobile phones and in other digital forms, rose by 25 percent last year, to $3.7 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report set for publication Friday. Digital sales accounted for 20 percent of the industry's revenue, up from 15 percent a year earlier.
But a nosedive in sales of CDs in the United States, exacerbated by the economic downturn and widespread piracy, took its toll in the fourth quarter of the year, when the industry typically posts its strongest sales. Meanwhile, growth in downloads from online music stores like Apple's iTunes has slowed.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
There are a few gems, but you're right. A lot of today's music sucks.
What music?
How’s George Jones doing in CD?
Lots of people are ignoring new music in favor of older music in the form of vinyl.
Yeah, I listened to XMU the other day just to see if I could glean any gems from the current college/indie scene.
Not much joy at all, and a lot of stuff that sounded like it was made by people who (a) can’t sing, (b) have an extremely limited sense of melody and/or harmony, (c) are going crazy playing with ACID or Fruity Loops software and don’t really know what they’re doing, (d) are just really depressed and want to die, (e) all of the above.
OK, I did like a few songs by Nada Surf, a song by My Morning Jacket was mildly intriguing, and Blitzen Trapper’s “Furr” is a weirdly catchy folk ditty. But other than that..GONG!
Haven’t bought any CDs lately because I can’t find anything I’d really like to listen to for 12-14 songs.
This was not a good day for Boy George either, doubt he made a dime lol.
We're DOOMED !!!!
The fact is, if you skip the "classic bands" from the past and listen to the music of the bands that were filling the airwaves between the hits of the day, they were crap too. Just like today.
Back then, the gems were needles in a haystack, today they're needles on a hay farm.
joking right?
And as I read on related threads that Hollywood is negotiating
talent downward and that pro sports will soon follow, does anyone here think their cable bills will notice?
I remember when CD’s were first coming out the software companies warned the record labels that going digital was going to guarantee lost revenue because it was always going to be easy to copy and share. And that was before anyone ever even pondered the idea of Napster.
Actually vinyl is making a comeback of sorts. Google “vinyl comeback.” I’m surprised at how many current artists have their albums available in vinyl on Amazon.
Actually, once millions of people were able to download music for free on the internet, there was no going back no matter hard the music industry tried to put that particular genie back in the bottle. If you read the article, it goes on to say that the Europeans are trying to find a new model by letting people download music for free, but charging the websites for the privilege of having the music to download. Something along those lines, anyway. Doesn't make sense to me.
LOL! Probably that's the correct answer. ;-)
Grin...what's a Boy George. ;-)
Today, we are back to the style of selling music like it was throughout most of the 1950's--music sales by individual song.
In my opinion, what may finally put an end of Compact Disc sales is when online retailers start offering their music in lossless formats such as Apple Lossless, FLAC or possibly WMA Lossless formats. With improving Internet bandwidth and cheap server storage nowadays, we could just see that happen within the next 3-4 years. The most likely lossless format to become widely commercially available for download will be Apple Lossless, since the iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch and iPhone support the format and the higher end players from Creative, Microsoft and Sandisk could upgrade to play the Apple Lossless format with a firmware upgrade.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.