Information Revolution: The Music Industry in a Digital Age
February 28th, 2008 ecoliReviews of 2007 sales show that through iTunes, Apple, Inc. is now the number two music retailer in the country, beating out Best Buy and Target, but still lagging behind Walmart. 10% of legally obtained music is now downloaded, a 6% jump from last year. Meanwhile, the average American spends $4 less per year on music and approximately 1 million Americans stopped purchasing CDs.
These statistics speak volumes about the way the music industry is changing. Apple, originally a computer and software company found a niche in the market for portable music devices, in the way other companies were developing slimmer cell phones and digital cameras at the beginning of the 21st century. Apple was able to successfully advertise the iPod and its accompanying software, iTunes, and still largely commands the market on portable music devices.
However, portable music players are nothing new, so why is the iPod revolutionizing the music industry? What separates the iPod from the Sony Discman, and the Walkman before it, is that the iPod is completely dependant on computers in order to function. The rise of the iPod has coincided perfectly with the rise of the internet. People are getting used to transmitting information and communicating through the internet, so transmitting music is the next logical step. Completely digital transmitted music is cheaper, more efficient and less wasteful than CDs.
Through iTunes, Apple has 50 million customers and has sold 4 billion songs - and that is just music obtained legally through one music purchasing program.
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