17 Million People Stopped Buying CDs In 2008

Houston 2600 sends along an Ars Technica writeup on the continuing downward trend in the traditional music business: NPD's annual survey found that 17 million CD customers dropped out last year. Among the good news is that streaming services such as Pandora are growing fast. "While overall music sales were up 10 percent in 2008, the year saw a drop not only in CD sales, but also in the number of customers actually purchasing music. But according to a new report, the act of listening to music is actually on the rise. ... NPD's annual Digital Music Study found that there were 17 million fewer CD customers in 2008 than in past years. CD sales have been dropping for quite some time, and while 1.5 billion songs were sold digitally last year, the number of Internet users paying for digital music only increased by 8 million in 2008."

Comments

Re:In related news...

[sesshomaru]

No one is buying anything right now. The funny thing is, if you have the money, right now is such a ridiculously awesome time to buy stuff.

This is actually a pretty good, simple way to describe a deflationary cycle.

Buying a CD: The Hassle Factor

[ElVee]

Let's compare buying a CD from a retail store versus downloading, shall we? Let's say you hear this rad Britney tune on some awesome Youtube mashup and you just have to have it, right freaking now.

Retail:

1) Get out of bed. Not something I do willingly.

2) Shower. Or not. Depends on how offensive your personal aroma is. After 2 days without a shower, I smell like roses and candy.

3) Get dressed. Okay, so I don't have any clean underwear. I'll just flip these inside out, nobody can see the skidmarks.

4) Find car keys. For me, it's usually a 5 minute desperate search until I realize that they're already in my pocket.

5) Drive to store. Traffic sucks, gas costs money and if I get another moving violation, I lose my license. No, Officer Friendly, I have no idea how fast I was going. Why don't you let me in on the secret?

6) Park in big box store parking lot. It's a long freaking walk in direct sunlight, and my basement-dwelling geek-pale skin might just burst into flame. Lean against door to rest. Wheeze loudly.

7) Go into store and find desired CD. Lookit that, they're out of stock and I came all this way. Shucks.

8) Stand in long-ass checkout line behind Welfare Queen and her brood. Screaming kids are always a pleasure, the little darlings.

9) Pay uncaring, minimum-wage clerk $14 for your purchase. For 6 bucks an hour, you KNOW she cares what you think.

10) Drive back home. More gas, more traffic, more chances for that moving violation.

11) Open CD. Break out Sawzall to cut through multiple layers of plastic and security tape. Cut finger open. Curse loudly.

12) Rip CD to disc. Can't browse porn while it's ripping or it might mess up. Hunt through 433 cable channels for something to watch while CD rips.

13) Upload to mp3 player. Rock out to Britney's latest. FINALLY!

Elapsed time: 90 minutes, $14 plus gas, plus cost of speeding ticket (if any).

Download:

1) Roll over in bed, open laptop, brush Cheetos dust off sausage-like fingers, click on Amazon.

2) Pay 99 cents for the one track you want.

3) Browse porn for the 60 seconds or so it takes to download.

3) Upload to MP3 player. Rock out.

Elapsed time: 3 minutes tops, 99 cents. No clothing, no shower, no speeding ticket.