CD Music Sales Down 20%
Mar 21st, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Music 
A lot of people are talking about the fact that CD sales are down by 20% from a year ago. While the music industry blames it on pirated music, there are more important reasons that CD sales are down:
- The compact disc is 25-year old technology;
- Mainstream music has stagnated;
- People are spending their entertainment dollars on other media, like DVDs and video games;
- You can buy spend $2 on a couple of singles and get the songs that you want from a CD, instead of buying the whole CD;
- The music industry jacked up prices when CDs were introduced, and many people think CD prices are too high;
- Unlike used records, used CDs sound great, which means that the market for releases of older music is getting saturated; and
- The compact disc is 25-year old technology.
The biggest reason that sales are declining, though, is that you can get great free MP3s legally.
All month we’ve been talking about music podcasts, and a lot of the music featured is great stuff that you’re not going to hear on major-label CDs or on mainstream radio. We’ve got an index of the free music podcasts that we’ve looked at this month, and it shows the variety and quality of the music podcasts that are available.
Pirating probably contributes to declining music sales – but there are bigger issues facing the mainstream music industry. The biggest of these is the fact that there is a huge world of free, legally downloadable music on the Internet. Every year, the world of free Internet music gets bigger, and every year, free Internet music will pose a bigger threat to the traditional business model for mainstream music.
Don’t forget the used CD market.
Check out another great video Podcast: San Diego Music Scout features lives band interview and performances of San Diegos finest. Recently released is an Exclusive: “Don’t Believe” an unreleased new recordedt track from Divided by Zero.
I still say the price is too high. When will the music industry learn from the movie people.
When movies first came out on VHS they were 80 dollars apiece. Once they saw they could lower the price and people would buy them they sold more movies.
When I can buy a movie for 5 to 15 bucks -why do I need to copy it?
Now if you go buy a music CD- that didn’t take millions to make – and go to Wal-Mart to buy it the price is like 18 dollars. That is crazy when you can buy a blank CD for less than 50 each.
What is the main problem with the music industry? GREED!!!