Music Sales Decline As Legal Music Downloads Grow

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Music+sales+flat+despite+legal+download+growth/2100-1027_3-6029981.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Music+sales+flat+despite+legal+download+growth/2100-1027_3-6029981.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Global music sales fell about 2 percent last year as surging digital music revenues failed to offset continued declines in physical media like CDs, the head of the industry's trade body said. Sales for 2006 are expected to be roughly flat, said John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, as the music business sees increasing benefits from selling songs online after its long-running battle with illicit online file sharing."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/headphones.jpg" /><br /><br />The continuing drama chronicling the death of traditional media continues. Makes you wonder when, or if, the hardliner media giants will ever see the writing on the wall.

[Jerry Raia]

I've read the the printing press caused the same kind of hysteria as well. I guess it is a good thing as big as dinosaurs are, they can still become extinct :)

[sub_tex]

I for one am praying that physical disks of any sort NEVER go away.

I refuse to buy music online that is of lesser quality than I can get on a CD. I don't care if it's $5 cheaper. It sounds bad on a real stereo or decent headphones.

Now, if they want to start offering FLAC downloads of albums, I'm all for it. But I still like album art and design. A downloadable jpg just isn't the same.

[Jerry Raia]

But I still like album art and design. A downloadable jpg just isn't the same.

I agree, but we already gave up a lot of that when we went from albums to CDs. :(

[sub_tex]

Yeah that's true.

But there were still some people who had some decent foldout covers. Nothing really to match the beautiful size and design that vinyl sleeves had, but at least it was an attempt.