Does Music Industry Experience with Digital Have Broader Implications?

Due to bad example of US music industry’s experience with digital services, print and video companies are trying to avoid as much as possible because piracy can undermine the business. It is still not clear that whether piracy was one of the chief reasons for financial downturn in the industry.
According to the statistics, sales dropped by 7.2 percent, $18.3 billion to $17 billion in the year 2009. The music industry has been witnessing lower and lower sales since the year 1999. But sales of digital music increased 9.2 percent and now are almost quarter of all music sales.
Many think that problem for drop in sales is not due to piracy, but it is due to the fact that digital content is simply less profitable when compared with other forms. But same cannot be said about the iTunes which is biggest seller of music in US.

But if considered that digital medium was in fact the reason for drop in sales, then one would have seen not have seen digital media sales outstrip sales from pre recorded media in countries like United Kingdom, Australia, India, Mexico, Thailand and South Korea. And it should be noted that 80 percent of global sales loss is due to United States and Japan alone.

Few also suggest that reason for loss of music sales can also be attributed to rise in competition. Music lovers might also be spending in downloading mobile applications and games. so piracy cannot be blamed completely for loss of sales. And now a day’s people prefer buying single songs over complete album which also results in less spending in turn fewer sales.