Posted on 03/21/2007 2:58:50 AM PDT by HAL9000
In an indication of what the Wall Street Journal calls a "seismic shift" in the way people now acquire music, CD sales for Q1 2007 are 20% below what they were last year. Digital song sales, which were expected to salvage the industry, have risen 54% in 2007 from last year to 173.4 million, but that is not nearly enough to compensate for the 20% drop in CD sales to 81.5 million units. Overall music sales, both digital and physical, are down 10% this year. Adding insult to injury, one billion songs a month are traded on pirate networks. Eight hundred specialty music stores closed down last year, including Tower Records' 89 locations. The rampant success of Apple's iPod indicates that consumers are as interested as ever in acquiring music, but it also suggests they prefer to buy without either entering a store or handling a CD. If they must go to a store, they head for Wal-Mart or Best Buy, which offer CDs at deep discounts. Best Buy has been reducing the floor space allotted to CDs, and if Wal-Mart follows suit, the picture will grow even gloomier for music companies.
NFP
Yep. It is divided into loud cacophony and even more loud cacophony. Neither will be missed.
Like vinyl lps....I like to have my purchase in my hand to look at.
I like to take out the printed material and look at it...my kids have I-pods, but they take them off CD's. I may go the I-Pod route so as to consolidate my music into one easy to activate source, but I do believe I will buy the CD's for downloading purposes.
Nope, I believe it will be telecoms next. With widespread availability of WiFi/WiMax broadband soon, practically-free-of-cost VoIP calls will be the cellphone of the future.
The telecom companies have a lot to fear.
I got tired long ago of buying an album/CD that had 1 good song and 12-15 crappy "filler" songs!
maybe if they weren't so dern expensive, people would buy more?
nah! too simple.
The format is already toast. Dead as the 78.
Less money for Hollywood liberals works for me.
My CD buying days were over this year, after I bought my handy TEAC 350. This baby easily converts my 1000+ Lp's to CD. Everytime I burn one , I say good riddance to the RIIA, or whaterver those ah's call themselves.
Bands get a higher royalty rate once they hit a certain number of songs on a CD (I think its 12). Of course, its all about the "art".
Your points are valid too. Cable isn't worth the money it costs, and newspapers are probably bought by the majority out of habit. Lol!
Somehow, I fear an opposition to wireless broadband coming from the telecom giants. Any way one looks at it, they are in for a major re-shaping.
my problem is price. a dollar a song is too much. and no matter what format you buhy, that's the going rate.
I buy my CD's on half.com
I only have a few hundred records....and I dont really want that many of them in digital form. but when I do, I go to Ebay or half.com and buy the CDs either used or discounted and the sound quality would have to better than to convert an old analog LP to digial. and as much as I tried to take care of my records and handle them carefully, you usually dont know if your needle/cartridge is worn and 'regrooving records' until after it has ruined a few of them.....
allofmp3.com is something like $2 per album or much less for a song. However, it's a Russian site, and I'm not willing to give them my credit card.
I used to think IP TV or TV on demand was the wave of the future, but what really determines price is the content providers. They'll allow you an a la carte selection of channels or perhaps programs, but bump up the price so you are paying the same as for your 200 channels. It is not what it is worth, but what the market will bear. ATT UVerse is probably going to be TV on demand eventually, bundled with your Internet connection.
Glad to hear it. I wish them all the bad luck in the world , the greedy bastids.
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