(http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/9-The-State-of-Music-Online-Ten-Years-After-Napster.aspx?r=1)
1. In the decade since Napster’s launch, digital music consumers have demonstrated their interest in five kinds of “free” selling points:
Cost (zero or approaching zero),
Portability (to any device),
Mobility (wireless access to music),
Choice (access to any song ever recorded)
Remixability (freedom to remix and mashup music)
All of this makes for a tall order, but if history is any guide, music consumers usually get what they want.
2. In 2009, there are plenty of fools among us, and the record labels are still hanging on to their broken strings. Granted, consumers aren’t spending as much on music as they used to. Record sales for the music industry continue to decline; the latest reports from Nielsen indicated that total album sales, including albums sold digitally, fell to 428.4 million units, down 8.5% 14% from 500.5 million in 2007.
3. Sharing music without permission is a violation of copyright, as the industry contends, but digital technology makes downloading music off the Internet inevitable. The industry missed an opportunity to turn informal file-sharing into a profit center when it failed to buy Napster, the first of the popular downloading services, when it had a chance in 2000.
The music industry is a dying dinosaur, but it's partly not due to technological advances. Artists aren't as developed and musically trained as they once were, and it shows in the public eye. You still have artists that can move physical units even when their projects leak (Jay-Z, Beyonce) and there are artists who don't have what it takes to succeed. The public is smart to not buy the album just for the single alone. this is where some of the album leaks help. If the product is good, then people will support it. Plain and simple, regardless of how many units are pushed. Flashiness is short-term, authenticity counts in the long run, whether you bought it or *cough* stole it *cough*.
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