I’m seeing this chart being passed around the last couple of days. Other than the CD sales peaks clearly being an aberration for the recorded music industry, I’m quite surprised that digital sales have picked up a significant amount of slack. Just from eyeballing, it looks like in 2009 digital sales made up about $2.5 million. Keep in mind this is 2009, when Amazon MP3 didn’t sell albums for $3-5 each. It boggles my mind the number of people who have bought digital albums or tracks from the iTunes store. I could never get behind paying what would amount to a convenience tax for digital files when I could own a CD and make them myself.
Imagine if the RIAA went digital in the late 90’s, early 00’s. To borrow an Arcade Fire lyric, they’d have mountains beyond mountains.
via Business Insider CHART OF THE DAY: The Death Of The Music Industry.