The music industry continues to notice a seismic shift from a traditional, controlled brick-and-mortar model to a model increasingly coping with erratic, global forces amidst the age of the internet. While the industry must safeguard its products from theft, the industry has made little progress adapting to the changing wants of consumers, particularly in the age of the iPod.
LONDON ( Reuters) – Sales of music fell at a faster rate in 2007 than 2006 despite digital sales soaring, and the gatekeepers of the Web must act if the industry is to beat piracy, the international trade body said on Thursday.
Global digital sales grew by around 40 percent in 2007, the IFPI group said, but this was not enough to offset the sharp fall in CD sales, meaning the overall market is expected to be down around 10 percent for 2007.
As part of its response, the industry is calling on Internet service providers to take more responsibility for illegal file sharing by either disconnecting those who repeatedly upload music or preventing illegal tracks from being downloaded.
The problem here is adapting to new market conditions. With a natural progression towards the Internet, these companies need to think about how to survive in an internet-age. The focus of many of these companies should digress from protecting the traditional brick-and-mortar model. Instead, the industry should refocus and rethink how to build services on the web and innovative ways to capture value. They need to do so without limiting the choice of consumers who enjoy a wide array of choice in consuming music.
