Music Sales Still Going, Going…

February 8, 2011 at 4:42 am PT

More than a decade after the Napster era, the music business is still declining: Warner Music Group‘s sales dropped 14 percent in the last three months of 2010. And digital revenue, via Apple’s iTunes and the mobile business, is sputtering too. It was up just 1.6 percent, and down 5 percent from the previous quarter.

Tagged with Apple, digital, earnings, entertainment, Internet, iTunes, MediaMemo, music, Napster, newsbyte, Peter Kafka, revenue, Warner Music Group

comments so far. Add yours.

http://twitter.com/apphacker Apphacker

It’s not just about piracy. I wonder how many people know about the great music available via aggregators such as hypemachine and the many, many music blogs out there that have absolutely amazing music by independent artists. A publishing company doesn’t make sense in a world where publishing is a simple as pressing a few buttons. Expect book publishers and television networks to also go away.
http://twitter.com/Brainwerx George Fiala

Historically, music publishers told the public when, and how, they were to receive the music they wanted. In an on demand, available from multiple (legal) sources, the public (end-user) tells the corporations how and when! Something these companies do not understand.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/IWQ7HIPZ4UJ5YWJB7JSYZ7QXKM watchdog

The labels deserve what they get. If they really wanted to increase the revenue from the download market, then forcing the price increase to $1.29 was not a good idea, and supporting the free ad-supported streaming subscription services were not a good idea.
Anonymous

I guess Steve Jobs were right again then. When the music download price goes up, people will go back to piracy.
Anonymous

The music publishers are idiots. My compulsive music buying dropped precipitously when the price went from 99¢ to $1.29. Steve tried to tell them, but they wouldn’t listen.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Smith/100000104530354 James Smith

if music companies offered quality product that people wanted to buy they would do a lot better.
Quality is proper tallented acts like the ones from the 1980s & 90s and even before.

Not the bublegum pap we get now. Winning a TV show sach as xfactor or xxxx has tallent dose not make you any thing of renoun
http://twitter.com/FrankJL9 Frank lopez

When will they learn?. Time to take those jurassic minded C.E.O’S and bring a new batch of executives that appeal to todays standards.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Mills/1099638671 Tony Mills

Just as a thought; How often do you have to replace an album anymore? Every few years, I had to replace a CD or cassette, now I don’t have to. All those CD’s I moved to iTunes are still there, even though the CDs themselves don’t work anymore.
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/ PKafka

No offense but I hate this response. In 1999 and 2000, when music sales peaked, the charts we ruled by Britney Spears, NSync and the Backstreet Boys, who were selling more than 10 million albums a pop. Just a guess, but my hunch is you would have complained about those acts, too. But people were willing to buy them in bulk a decade ago.
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/ PKafka

This is something that’s always been a problem for the music industry– even people who have never stolen/shared a single song have iPods full of music they didn’t buy from iTunes. It’s from discs they already owned. A few years ago Apple estimated that iPod owners purchased about 20 songs a piece online. How many songs are on your iPod/iPhone?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Mills/1099638671 Tony Mills

Not many really, a few thousand. Not on the iPod, but in iTunes. I have a 1.5 TB disk full. (music/movies/tv). I buy TV shows to watch later.