Comments on: Digital Music Sales "Collapsing?"

By: Jason Howard

Jason Howard — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:18:09 +0000

@matt: hahahaha

@stu: sounds like double taxation almost!

I just can't imagine music sales declining. If anything I'd think it would be going up as more of the general public discover and get comfortable finding and buying music online, and as more and more people buy portable media players.

People like to buy one or two songs from an album instead of buying the whole album, and buying online lets them do that easily.

I dont think people will go and replace their CD collections with all online music purchases for the following reasons:
1) People like to own something physical. With a CD you get the CD, case, liner (sp?) notes, etc. It feels like you actually got something for your money
2) People like to show off their collections
3) Having a CD is less worrisome. You dont have to worry about your computer blowing up and losing some vast library of music you purchased.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:41:39 +0000

Maybe 0.99 per song is a bit much.
Another industry pricing itself out of business.

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:17:03 +0000

That's interesting. If digital music is used to supplement standard CD sales and not replace them, why should anyone need to pay a fee to music publishers for digital sales? If they're making money off of physical CD sales already, as well as getting royalties from online sales which supplement the physical sales, they really shouldn't be getting another revenue stream from player sales or broadband providers. Most people with players put their entire CD collection on their computer and transfer them to their device. Since they've already paid royalties to the music companies to for the physical CDs, why should they need to pay a royalty fee to be able to play them digitally? You don't need to pay labels when you purchase a CD player. Also, major labels shoudn't be receiving a cut from players if independant artists aren't also receiving a percentage. With how easy it is to produce and market independant music online I'd assume that a large percentage of sales are from independant artists and not from major labels. Also, with how easy it is to find new artists online, major labels don't have the same control over the market that they used to, which allows smaller artists to take a bigger chunk of total sales.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:20:13 +0000

Maybe they are losing money because the Zune is doing so well…

Ok, probably not.