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U.S. Digital Music Sales Plateau in First Half of 2010

It is because of torrents in a hard economy. I believe it was Gates that once said to fill an iPod classic 160 GB would be around $50,000 or something riddiculous. I don't remember the exact quote but you get the point.

I do think it is also because many people with iPods or whatever already have music collections that are mature and the latest selections coming out are not that great.

As far as Apple shifting to video, that has nothing to do with it. They still add all new music they can get their hands on. It is really a wasteland out there artistically for music now though.

But not too many teenagers I know buying iPods now are going to have cash like that. It isn't stealing if you mantain a ratio of over 1.0 at Demonoid. LOL

It would be interesting to juxtapose the downturn of digital sales with the sales of physical media products. The music industry is in a world of hurt right now. But it only really presents a problem for producers and such.

Look at bands like Radiohead that give their music away and they aren't hurting. They have loyal fans and have tons of goodwill on their side, they just cut out the producers and media sales outlets.
 
WiiMarioHacker said:
You know why it may be piracy?

Because the Government told us we don't OWN the music. (So what's the point of paying. Paying = You Own It. Or at least that what the rule was)
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The "Government" told you? This isn't news, you never did own the music. Whether you bought it on mp3 or CD or cassette or LP or 8-track, all you ever owned was the media and the right to play it and do other personal use things like make mix tapes. You never had the right to make copies for others (though of course people did it all the time).

It's not just music, either, when you buy a book, you own the paper and the right to read it, but you don't have the right to make copies of it.
 
Just like everybody does not have a computer. Not everybody wants or needs to download their music. Is the percentage of music sold by downloads staying the same as it was before?
 
I only buy cds and I burn them to iTunes. Then I stick them in a binder. I use apple lossless. Sure it takes more disk space... but it also gives me more listening pleasure. Until Apple offers a lossless format instead of 320kb I'll continue to buy cds.
 
Superdrive said:
As mentioned above, I've built my library with classics. When the production companies start kicking out stuff worthy of the "Classic" title, I'll continue buying.
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Yes, there's too much crap coming out now. Not much worthy buying! I'm hoping Clapton's new album is good!
 
Lets see, raise the price 30%... hmm... I can't imagine what would cause the sales to drop by 30%.
 
This is wall street bs because they are always wanting growth even if you have supplied everyone on earth with your widget. They want more sales no matter what the cost to common sense.
 
Music these days is just as good as it has always been. It's now easier than ever to find good new and discover old music. The charts have always been mostly shallow, but WHO CARES?

About the music downloads, it was clear that they would level off at some point, and higher prices plus recession are probably responsible for the standstill this year. There will probably be some small growth still in the future, but the huge gains of 2008 are history. Fortunately for Apple, they have smart leadership and have long moved on to other turfs.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
I think we are all in agreement that the price increase has been the deciding factor; I know it has for me.
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Exactly, if these record labels want to sell more albums, they need to get a base price of like 7.99 or less.

I'm all for supporting bands. So I buy 99% of the albums I own.

Another improvement would be lengthening the preview tracks so I can get a good idea if I"ll like the album or not.
 
violaboy said:
No, regardless of the generation, there's a lot of crap out there. Very little quality music.

Use your ears, not your eyes....
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Same thing was said in the 50's when rock came out. Punk in the 70's. Rap in the 80's. Grunge in the 90's. Hell, Mozart probably would have said the romantic movement was crap had he lived to see it. I don't listen to my kids music but I don't judge it by my tastes either. Use your brain, not your ears.
 
flopticalcube said:
Same thing was said in the 50's when rock came out. Punk in the 70's. Rap in the 80's. Grunge in the 90's. Hell, Mozart probably would have said the romantic movement was crap had he lived to see it. I don't listen to my kids music but I don't judge it by my tastes either. Use your brain, not your ears.
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Blasphemy. We clearly don't use our brains when responding in the News forum.

That being said, there hasn't been any really good music since the death of Johannes Brahms. Everything since is just trash.
 
Will Apple stay?

Speedy2 said:
Music these days is just as good as it has always been. It's now easier than ever to find good new and discover old music. The charts have always been mostly shallow, but WHO CARES?

About the music downloads, it was clear that they would level off at some point, and higher prices plus recession are probably responsible for the standstill this year. There will probably be some small growth still in the future, but the huge gains of 2008 are history. Fortunately for Apple, they have smart leadership and have long moved on to other turfs.
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Apple seems to have a history of quiting & not selling their hadware/software when they move on to other ground. Does Apple have the staying power to keep the iTunes store open?
 
Lostanddamned said:
Personally, I'm still on CD's. I have a huge (~600 disc) collection and I don't feel ready to take the dive to purely digital.

I like the idea that I could (with a lot of work) recover all my music after a total fail of my computer.
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I had the same concern, but I just backup my iTunes library onto DVD's. It takes up much less space.
 
ryanwarsaw said:
It is because of torrents in a hard economy. I believe it was Gates that once said to fill an iPod classic 160 GB would be around $50,000 or something riddiculous. I don't remember the exact quote but you get the point.
Click to expand...

Torrents have been there for many years, and torrenting has actually gone down recently, so it's very unlikely that it is responsible for the current stagnation in downloads. Of course, piracy has led to a substantial dent in music sales during the last 10 years, but the industry has accepted this inevitable fact. Money is now more and more coming from other revenue streams like concerts, festivals, merchandise. Things that can't be copied. However, the "golden age" of labels and promoters is over. Nevertheless, I don't see the music suffering. Look at what **** populated the charts in the 80s ... not a shred better than today's charts. Most artists are still making music it because it's their passion, not because they want to get filthy rich. And they can still earn a living.
 
notjustjay said:
The "Government" told you? This isn't news, you never did own the music. Whether you bought it on mp3 or CD or cassette or LP or 8-track, all you ever owned was the media and the right to play it and do other personal use things like make mix tapes. You never had the right to make copies for others (though of course people did it all the time).

It's not just music, either, when you buy a book, you own the paper and the right to read it, but you don't have the right to make copies of it.
Click to expand...

This is why the music industry gets criticized. If they were smart, they would simply increase prices to the point where it compensated for piracy. Instead, they go out and make futile attempts to protect against the inevitable. It's like the "war on drugs." No one will ever win it.
 
violaboy said:
No, regardless of the generation, there's a lot of crap out there. Very little quality music.

Use your ears, not your eyes....
Click to expand...


If you did that you said, you would notice that there is an infinite amount of very good music out there. But guess what, you actually have to get up and look for it. It won't fly into your ears just like that. But fortunately, all you have to do these days is pick one of the good radio channels on iTunes. Or read a few good music blogs. No need to run into shops and awkwardly listen to records and CDs with 5 people waiting behind you like in the good olde times.
 
heisetax said:
Apple seems to have a history of quiting & not selling their hadware/software when they move on to other ground. Does Apple have the staying power to keep the iTunes store open?
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If they want to, yes. But they will probably reinvent the thing again. Especially if it is truly stagnating.
 
kr11048 said:
Perhaps the nearly 30 percent less growth has something to do with the fact that they jacked up prices about 30% from .99 to 1.29 on iTunes. 30 cents may not seem like much more, but it takes a significantly better song to make me fork over the extra 30% of my hard-earned cash.
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+1 ...

I buy less now since the prices went up.
 
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