Combined with the news that digital music sales are up 26%, the decision to offer DRM-free iTunes Plus downloads looks better and better.
The long, slow, and painful decline in physical CD sales has made some of the record labels take heed and embrace the future of music that it is digital distribution, and none have done more to listen to the public than has EMI.
It was the first and still only record label to offer its music catalog free of DRM restrictions on Apple’s new iTunes Plus music store, for which it says “Early revenue indications for this initiative are encouraging.” It’s due in part to this bold initiative that revenue for digital music has leaped by some 26% in the last 3 months.
But, in a bit of stinging reality check for EMI, and proof that digital distribution is the future of music, physical revenues, i.e. CD sales, dropped by a staggering 19.8% in just the last 4 months alone!
Financier Guy Hands, who is currently in the middle of a financing deal to take over control of the music group, blames the drop in CD sales on a poor release schedule, a reason also cited in EMI’s Interim Management Statement for the quarter, though vaguely referred to as a “light” release schedule. Whether or not it was so “poor” or so “light” to account for a stunning 19.8.% decline in sales is the real question, and the one hopefully execs at the record label are asking themselves as we speak.
One things for sure, the CD is going extinct, and one has to go no further than a nearby sidewalk or streetcorner and observe the fact that nearly all passerbys are listening to music on iPods and other portable digital media players. Few, if any, will have a portable CD player in hand.
Hopefully this recent decline in physical revenue will convince EMI to maintain its current course and continue to embrace digital music distribution wholeheartedly, and DRM-free content in particular.
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Does iTunes Plus do some weird data-mining thing? It was being talked about on here for awhile.
I said this before and i’ll say it again most of the music EMI brings out is pure and utter SHIT so i’ve got some advice for the big suits sitting their fancy offices. Bring REAL ARTISTS back artists that inspire and make good music. The focus on the same types of music are too big there’s no diversity at all everything is POP R&B/DANCE/POP ROCK/HIP-HOP and it all sounds the same.
Mainstream Hip Hop for instance is too much bling bling and needs a big fat kick in the TEETH! It’s not Hip Hop anymore but repetitive bullshit without that oomph it used to have. People like Eric B and Rakeem KRS one A tribe called quest never got a worthy follow up they got replaced by supposed rappers talking about money+cars and hillbilly rappers without any skill at all talking about southern laffy taffy and other insignificant things.
The candy pop rock bullshit is quite annoying too i mean did the grunge era lead us to this?? Where’s artists that have the quality that for instance a Nirvana Pearl Jam Soundgarden had? Good music with songs that everybody knew and even the people that did not like rock music. Thankfully the Smashing pumpkins returned and Rage against the machine got back together too so promote that shit if you want good sales!
New R&B MAINSTREAM music has nothing to offer at all where’s the new Marvin Gaye? Alicia Keys is standing on her own in that field maybe J.Legend???? But if you look in a broader perspective you guys have very little to offer to the public so go search and make contact with new talent.
Dance is repetitive in my opinion but you had some great artists back in the day that made good tunes like Wink and the prodigy…
Give underground artists a chance to make it big instead of crying like little babies about declining sales.
Zoness I agree that most of the popular music right now is shit but it still sells very well. Everyone seems to just eat it up.
Everyone old thinks their generations music was better than what is currently ‘popular’
What do you consider old? I’m young but i have a taste for quality music maybe you don’t Horowitz? I’m just not that impressed with the bullshit record companies present to us. I mean take Talib Kweli for instance the guy has great music and will probably never get to the level of a repetitive 50cent. Whilst Talib has a better flow than 50cent a better image then 50cent and better music then 50cent. But hey my definition of great music is probably different than that of the masses.