Well, it must be piracy causing the slump. No way it could have anything to do with the quality of product being offered by the record companies...
Or with the artifically high price of CDs being pushed even higher. Compare CD sales to DVDs. Many DVDs are available for equal or less than the price of a CD.
If the labels claim that they need to recoup the cost of the recording session, etc. why are the oldies album reissues so expensive as well (those costs were settled long ago)?