The music time bomb has exploded

The music industry is going through a shakeup.  Revenue from music sales has declined from more than $14.6 billion in 1999 to $6.3 billion a decade later.  Conventional wisdom holds that the rise of the Internet’s popularity is at the heart of this phenomenon, and the evidence mostly indicates that this view is correct.

Online stores like iTunes, along with an abundance of file-sharing and user-driven sites like YouTube, have changed the rules for marketing, selling, and distributing music.  To be sure, there are factors that complicate this narrative.  The 1990s likely saw a significant one-time boost in music sales as customers replaced vinyl records and cassette tapes with CDs.  Moreover, two recessions during the 2000s certainly did not help the industry.  Still, it is likely that technology, above all else, transformed the music business.  Record companies must adapt quickly or further risk becoming dinosaurs in an ever-changing commercial landscape. 

As illegal file sharing began to draw the ire of musicians and record companies, legal downloads became a growing business, as well.  Apple Inc. introduced its iPod music player in 2001, the dominant offering to this day; it added its iTunes online music store in 2003.  According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, the number of Internet users paying for downloads totaled 36 million in 2009, with online downloads accounting for 33 percent of music tracks purchased in the United States that year.  Digital sales rose between 2007 and 2009 despite the recession. 

Now that the bomb has exploded, and we have surveyed the damage, what do we do to help the wounded?  Who are the wounded?  Is there hope for them?  Is the internet the bomb, or the savior of the music business?  These are questions we must ask ourselves.  If we don't assess the damage and begin to take intentional action for the Arts, I believe we will see a watered down version, and lose the once thriving freedom of creativity.  The Arts community will lose its freedom from lack of funding due to unpaid royalties, and from its personal properties being given away through the internet.

We must take responsibility for our part in this ongoing dilemma.  Support the Arts, you just may be one of them!