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“So far this year, album sales are down 12 percent compared to the total sales at this time last year, according to Billboard,” Kenney reports. “Music industry execs blame the dropping sales numbers on illegal downloads. Exactly what percent of music downloads are illegal is difficult to calculate, but estimates range as high as 20 illegal downloads for every legal download. As for the total cost of illegal downloads, it depends on who you ask.”
Kenney reports, “Despite the dwindling album numbers, there is one bright spot for the industry: digital sales of single tracks. From 2004 to 2009, digital track sales have grown over by nearly a factor of 10, from 140 million units sold in 2004 to 1.2 billion in 2009.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Music cartels: Resign yourselves that the days of forced music bundling via artificial construct (the album) are over. Next, resume selling your singles via Apple’s dominant iTunes Store for 99-cents. You’d be farther along today if your had conquered your greedy ways and left the digital download price alone. Bad habits obviously die hard. Resuming sales of 99-cent tracks will cause you to sell more music and make more money while your industry recovers and finds a new equilibrium; one that’s not artificially inflated atop forced bundling. Apple has restored the power to the consumer, where it rightfully belongs. The days of gorging yourselves by gouging your customers with $18 CDs are gone forever.