Record Digital Music Sales

Lately I've been cleaning up, and I've been realizing that for CD's that I rarely listen to, there's not a good reason to keep them around.  Apparently, others are doing the same as their purchasing patterns are switching from physical media to digital for their music needs.  I spotted this article on Vnunet:

Digital music sales account for nearly 30 per cent of the total music market in the US and around 20 per cent in Europe, according to the latest update from Point Topic.

Record company revenues from digital sales are estimated at around $2.9bn in 2007, up 40 per cent on 2006.

"This is roughly split half and half between online and mobile sales," said John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic.

Estimates suggest that there were around 1.7 billion single music tracks legally downloaded in 2007, an increase of 53 per cent on 2006.

With the availability of music players that are as good as the Zune, it's more compelling to download the tracks and skip the packaging.  Are you contributing to this trend as well?

Comments

[Mister]

Are you contributing to this trend as well?

Not yet. I've had a feeling that the future of music was going to be digital sales for a few years now, but until artists start adding the full artwork/liner notes I won't make the complete switch. Sure, my Zune will display the cover art that I add to my mp3's, but (hopefully) soon they will add the option of being able to scroll through all of the artwork/liner notes and then we might see more artists adding those to the download package. I enjoy looking through the booklet and reading either liner notes or seeing additional artwork that unfortunately we haven't seen added to the download package just yet. (If someone's doing it already, I haven't seen it yet.)

Also, I personally won't make the switch until I have the option of either purchasing an album as mp3's OR a lossless version, such as flac, as I would take the flac files any day and gladly pay more. No, my Zune won't play flac files, but my modified ipod will, plus I can make my own mp3's FROM those flac's and still have a backup copy that are of lossless quality.

[themis]

ditto on everything above. seriously. if all-digital is such a step forward, why does it feel like a compromise? no lyrics, no liner notes, no imagery other than a single miniscule jpeg (sometimes), and lossy compression.

the two main reasons most people are going file-based instead of physical are: price and maximum portability.

price.
because almost everyone capable of downloading at all knows of at least one "free" source they can just download stuff from (usually illegal). even barring that, the "i'm so happy i can just buy the good songs after years of wasting my money on an album with 2 or 3 good songs".

portable.
because they can fit thousands of "songs" on a device a fraction of the size and weight of a loaded CD player.

what most people don't realize is:

1. ignoring all but what they quickly surmise to be the "best" songs by an artist gives both artist and listener short shrift. the artist is only rewarded for making music that instantly captivates the largest number of people and makes less money. thus they are given less money or impetus to create more chance-taking, innovative tracks. as for illegal downloads, while a pirate network is, legality aside, potentially great for exposure, so many people end up just keeping those downloads (or just their "favorite" tracks) in their playlist til they tire of them, instead of supporting the artist.

2. number of "songs" depends on sound quality and length of time. there are some pretty great pieces of music that are 6, 8, or even 20 minutes. with people focused on file size rather than quality, those songs can slip through the cracks. not to mention that people regularly rip CDs or buy tracks as 192 or 256kbps mp3's, which simply don't contain all the sonic information of the original file. but most people claim they can't tell the difference (even if there's clarity, richness, or space their brains are missing from the music, which they are not conscious of) or are willing to accept the loss in quality because of the price.

i find it incredibly sad that technology has advanced to the point where it can record and process sound at such amazing quality...and simultaneously engineer delivery and playback systems that destroy those achievements.

i suppose this has always been the case - people have been listening on crap playback systems for years. but at least the actual medium released to the public was continually improving. they had the option of upgrading to a better system to hear the great stuff contained in the recording. now, if you upgrade you will only hear the limitations of the crappy bitrate you ripped or downloaded at.

support lossless.