Music Industry Crisis

Music Industry Crisis

For most of the 20th Century record companies made money by selling a tangible product- a vinyl disc or a CD. You owned music by having a disc collection. With the internet the music industry has had to adapt as CD sales are falling each year. The 'product' is now bought online as a single song or album, and exists only as an item on an iPod, mobile phone or computer.

A commodity (in this case music) always depends for its status and its value on it relative scarcity; once the reproduction and distribution of that commodity become effectively free, then it necessarily loses that value and that status.

In 2009, 95% of music was downloaded illegally.