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 ...
I'm sure our cable bills will still go up. However, if there is ANY segment of our economy that needs to see drastic deflation, it's the obscene amounts paid to Hollywood and sports talent.
Time to bail out Feist.
And the music companies stupidly refused to update their business models to anticipate and plan for the digital revolution.
Obviously you haven’t heard Cloud Cult’s (uncredited) tribute to the Allman Brothers’ Midnight Rider. (I’m being sarcastic, of course).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6FrgjQHaaA
“It’s the music, stupid.”
Exactly, except sales by individual song goes back to Tin Pan Alley days and the popularity of sheet music. The emphasis on selling only albums is a comparatively recent development.
Boy George?
I’ve seen pictures of it, and I still don’t know what it is.
Elton john on acid
I have zero sympathy for the music labels.
LOL, the only way to be rick rolled...
The real problem here is that all of the good band names were used up by about 1985.
Those are niche markets available for collectors, audiophiles and "retro" interest. They'll sell enough vinyl to make producing these small batches profitable but LPs will never move the numbers needed to turn around the slump in the music business. Those days are over.
There is no way that good music will be contained to an advertising medium. There will probably remain a split in media, the cheap or free and the vinyl that will remain as the standard of quality. The best will continue to be represented by the best.
I never said that vinyl sales would be enough to turn around the slump in music sales. All I said was that vinyl is “making a comeback of sorts.” Which it is.
Today, with digital downloads, we're going back to the single-song sale format, unless people want longer play from a single release. We may see singles being longer than before, too.
I wonder if these “new vinyls” are actually recorded in anolog. I have a feeling they are recorded digitally and then converted to analog just for the vinyl versions.
Am I being to persnickety?
I can’t see recorded music making a comeback economically. It won’t go away altogether, but it will never be the cash cow for the record companies that it once was. In fact, I wonder if the whole notion of “record companies” is soon to become an antiquated one. To be sure there will always be music, but it will become increasingly an undifferentiated commodity.
Good point, and you’re probably right. Probably kills the advantage of getting it in vinyl, if that’s the case.
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