The new year has marked another nail in the coffin for CD & Vinyl music sales, as figures released this week in the US showed digital finally pushed ahead of physical sales, making up just over 50% of all music sold in 2011.
More good news for the industry is that for the first time in 10 years, sales have come out of decline.. The industry still sells only half the number of units they were moving at the turn of the millenium, but you can probably blame the major players resisting the move to mp3 distribution until quite recently.
Even though vinyl sales have continued to increase in popularity, they’re still a niche product limited to DJ’s and hipsters & make up fuck all of the overall market…Â
As subscription services such as spotify & zune continue to push the industry into new territory, album sales are becoming a less relevant measure of commercial success.
David Bowie might be a crackpot, but he wasn’t far off when back in 2000 he said:
Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen.
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3 comments
Bowie hit the nail on the head. lol
Not to mention Frank Zappa’s proposed music subscription service from back in the 80s: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090405/1806484395.shtml
^ woah!
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