Plummeting Sales in the Music Industry

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MUSIC SALES The new age of commerce has changed the way trading occurs. Record labels were once sluggish and governed by selfish interest, employing the “Build it, and they will come” concept. A limited amount of content on the web was tested and proved to be a consumer preference even in the 90’s. Today free web content has become the numb that would not just go away, the music industry has taken one of the biggest hits in the process. An album can be likened to a case of water at a gas station, while a single would be a bottle; the average customer likes the power to choose between the case and the bottle. The convenience of buying what I want, and how I want is a key factor in today’s market. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, since the introduction of iTunes Music Store in 2003, album sales have plummeted in the US from $11.8 billion to 7.1 billion last year. Numbers show customer now favor singles. Many claim the labels in the past forced them to buy rubbish, but thanks to the Internet, people can now buy what they need. Page 2 Buyers that have CD collections can pick up a couple of their favorites, look at the track listing to realize they do not like every song on it. However, they are no longer limited to in options to buy music, making single tracks win. Although record sales have dropped, the labels still market their products the same. Units are calculated combining singles and albums. The companies believe we should buy albums; an executive was quoted as saying “It's all about re-creating the bet... ... middle of paper ... ...99 iTunes download, but when compared to sales from her husband’s album which sold exclusively via Samsung on the day of release, it’s easy to conclude that he made the better business choice. Works Cited Work Cited "RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales." Techdirt. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. N.p., n.d. Web. . "Business & Money." Business Money Spotify and YouTube Are Just Killing Digital Music Sales Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. .

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