“While overall music sales were up 10 percent in 2008, the year saw a drop not only in CD sales, but also in the number of customers actually purchasing music. But according to a new report, the act of listening to music is actually on the rise. … NPD’s annual Digital Music Study found that there were 17 million fewer CD customers in 2008 than in past years. CD sales have been dropping for quite some time, and while 1.5 billion songs were sold digitally last year, the number of Internet users paying for digital music only increased by 8 million in 2008.”
Via Slashdot.
This says something about the direction the music industry should take regarding music distribution. Less people are buying music, but the people that are buying music are actually buying more. More people are listening to music; so find a way to make money from that - or via that. Reach them while they’re listening.
