Itunes Sale! On Heals Of CD Slump
04.18.07 - 02:13pm
Itunes has just posted a sale for over 100 famous iTunes albums. Albums from the likes of U2, Miles Davis, Smashing Pumpkins, Pink Floyd and more are available for $7.99 for a limited time.
The announcement comes on the heals of the news that CD sales have dropped 13 percent from last year, exceeding even the Napster era of 2001 to 2004 when downloads were free.
The good news however is that iTunes were up 60% from last year, and while digital downloads are still not enough to make up for the drop in CD sales the music industry is still hopeful.
“Today’s music marketplace has challenges, but it also offers reason for hope and optimism,” RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement. “The appetite for music is as strong as ever and a digital marketplace now worth nearly $2 billion has emerged virtually overnight.”
Sales of albums bought on the internet have gone up 103% from last year showing the trend that music is going. The iPod, iTunes, MP3 players and digital music is taking over the market, yet with subscription services available offering unlimited downloads one wonders if there will be a need for CD’s any longer or how well albums will sell. While it is nice to “own music” we all get tired of songs when played too much for too long and we all have much beloved albums collecting dust. With a service and free downloads you can constantly change and recollect music, play it virtually anywhere and at home on your surround sound with a simple accessory. It is simply way cheaper to spend $7 to $11 for a service than to pay hundreds for albums and the music doesn’t get lost in a move, broken, or scratched.
The change is taking place no matter what and in this new market, the new way of digital music it is up to the record labels and the music industry to find a way to still make money a task they have not yet found a way to overcome, for in spite of the increase in digital sales, overall music sales were still down 6.2% to $11.51 billion.
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