Idolator
A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report released today estimates that digital-music sales will surpass physical-format sales in three years. So that has to be good news, right? Please?
[According to the report], spending in the U.S. will be dropping about 0.4% a year for the next five years, reaching an expected $11.3 billion in 2011, down from the $11.5 billion spent in 2006. Report predicts that sales will drop again this year, to $10.48 billion, and next, to $10.43 billion, but will start to recover in 2009...
Driving the digital marketplace will be new mobile services, attractive pricing, enhanced interoperability and record-store closings. Ringtunes, for example, are expected to bring in $1.58 billion in 2011, nearly double the $800 million predicted for this year. Ringtones, meanwhile, will practically disappear.
So ti summarize: In two years, there will be no record stores, nobody will be making any money, and every movie-going experience will be interrupted by teenagers playing full-length Ashley Tisdale songs on their Nokia. Does that count as a depression?
Music sales shifting to digital globally [Variety]
Comments
The last point might count as justifiable homicide.
I don't know if it counts as "a depression" but you can count me depressed.
People are buying $800 million worth of ringtunes!?! I have yet to understand the appeal of this. People are willing to spend two dollars on only a small part of song with shitty quality so they can hear it whenever someone calls? Can anybody explain this? I'm only 24 so it's not like I'm all that old or anything but I don't get it at all.
"Report predicts that sales will drop again this year, to $10.48 billion, and next, to $10.43 billion, but will start to recover in 2009..."
Again with the "Chinese Democracy" twaddle?
2009 increase? Well, I guess knowing Bush won't be president will increase anyone's morale, but..
@The Van Buren Boys: Thomas Dolby had a good theory in the San Diego Union Tribune:
"The reason, he believes, is that paying for a ringtone 'doesn't come from kids' music budget, but from their fashion budget. They pay an extra $10 to get the right logo on their sneakers, when they could get a cheap knockoff, because when you're a kid at the mall, what you're wearing is important. Similarly, when your phone goes off, you can't look like a dork. It's just like whistling the Black Eyed Peas' song - it's not the real thing.' "
@janine: You are spot on as usual.
Most of those ringtones/tunes are on cell phones that often have no available minutes. Boost Mobile is a horrible rip-off but they have good advertising so tons of kids use the service. They walk around with relatively high-tech devices that can't place calls, but are very good at playing back one little snippet of "Lip Gloss" over, and over and ...
They're kids. Kids do all kinds of illogical and wasteful stuff to appear cool. At least that is what my Thriller jacket told me.
So the future doesn't have flying cars, but it does have High School Musical ringtunes? Good to know.
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