As much as we love the Internet, we can’t deny it’s huge impact on our lives and even on the economy. It has changed certain things for the better for sure. Even though I live in a small village, I can order anything I need via Amazon instead of having to drive 30 miles to a big city.
But the Internet certainly also has had negative effects economically speaking. One of the industries most affected by the Internet is probably the music industry. Did you know:
- between 2000 en 2012 record sales in stores declined more than 76%
- between 2000 and 2009 cd sales dropped 50%
- in January 2012 digital music sales surpassed physical sales for the first time, now making up 50,3% of all music sales
- from 1999 to 2009 full album sales dropped 55%, whereas individual song sales went up from 0 to 1.2 billion
What’s your conclusion?
[via Infographic List]
Djs says
I don’t necessarily think this is negative – the middleman “skimming economy” of the music industry dramatically shrank and at the same time music consumers could get the 1 or 2 good tracks from an album without having to spend the cost of a CD – which was just going to fund the legacy overhead of the industry.
The discretionary income that music consumers now have as a result goes into buying MORE music or other items in industries where we have an interest (like Apps ;).
Rachel Blom says
I agree, I love the fact that I can buy the sings I like and not the rest…It’s made me buy more diverse music at least, not sure if I;m spending more money on music in general.
Paul Clifford (@PodcastinChurch) says
In other news, the ice manufacturing industry is being ravaged by the evil home refrigerator.
Rachel Blom says
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the Internet, I’m merely pointing out a causal relationship between the rise of the Internet and the death of the music industry. Once could make the same argument for the book industry, with Amazon thriving and independent book stores going under. It’s just a fact, not a judgement 🙂
Eric Dye says
LOL!