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The Music Industry's Crisis Writ Large

The NY Times has an opinion piece that makes starkly clear the financial decline of the music industry. It's accompanied by an infographic that cleverly renders the drop-off. The latest culprit accelerating the undoing of the music business is free, legal online music streaming. "Since music sales peaked in 1999, the value of those sales, after adjusting for inflation, has dropped by more than half. At that rate, the industry could be decimated before Madonna's 60th birthday. ... 13- to 17-year-olds acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD sales among these teenagers were down 26 percent and digital purchases were down 13 percent. ... [T]he percentage of 14- to 18-year-olds who regularly share files dropped by nearly a third from December 2007 to January 2009. On the other hand, two-thirds of those teens now listen to streaming music 'regularly' and nearly a third listen to it every day."

8 of 554 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Film at 11. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    We'll be providing blow-by-blow coverage.

    That's great! Just don't forget the hookers.

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    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  2. Re:Decimated... by Tau+Neutrino · · Score: 5, Funny

    If their sales are down by half, they've already been decimated five times over.

    Actually, if sales had been decimated once, they would be at 90% of their previous level. Twice, they'd be at 81%. Five times, at 59.049%.

    To get to 50%, they'd have to have been decimated approximately 6.578 times.

    Pedantic even longer.

    --
    Lemmings are silly; dinosaurs are extinct.
  3. Re:The traditional music industry is a buggy whip by countertrolling · · Score: 3, Funny

    The rumors of our death are highly exaggerated

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  4. Re:Let it die. by ProfM · · Score: 2, Funny

    Regarding live performances, you have to realize that many bands aren't exactly sober when they play.

    That's the reason to go see them ... it's like going to a Nascar event for the crashes.

  5. Re:CDs are for old people by Stormwatch · · Score: 2, Funny

    FYI, I treat my old stock CDs like faberge eggs. Priceless!

    Don't be selfish. If you have good stuff, start a torrent of it!

  6. Not streaming: missing option by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Funny

    The graph is indeed pretty illustrative, but to suggest the CD is being killed off by streaming is misleading, because they don't graph the main competitor to the CD.

    That's right, the minidisc.

  7. Re:Homemade music is best by mano.m · · Score: 2, Funny

    It won't seem so special once wives are downloadable.

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    Karma fed to this user will be promptly burnt. Be warned; be wary.
  8. Re:Homemade music is best by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... it cheers me up...

    Yeah, right... You just get off on the lesbian frission when she sings "When I Saw Her Standing There".

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    That is all.