The Year the Music Dies

Record labels are under attack from all sides. In the first six months of 2002,
CD sales fell 11 percent whereas sales of blank CDs jumped 40 percent. At the
same time, the users of Kazaa, the biggest online file-trading service, tripled in
number.
As recently as 10 years ago, record labels were regarded by their owners as a
source of easy money. Now all five major labels (Universal, Warner, Sony, BMG,
and EMI, which together control about 75 percent of global recorded-music
sales) are starting to lose money, and the industry’s decline is turning into a
plunge.
The record labels blame piracy for their troubles. And they’re right --in part.
Before writing this paragraph, I logged on to Kazaa. At 10 on a Monday
morning, hardly peak time, 3.1 million people were on the network. At least a
hundred copies of every song on the “ Billboard Hot 100” were available for
download. Add to that the millions of discs sold on every street corner from the
Bronx to Beijing and we can see the reasons for their concern.
To survive, the industry would need the active assistance of friends it doesn’t
have. Rightly or wrongly, record companies are detested by their customers (for
inflating prices) and by politicians. Musicians and songwriters are famous for
loathing the labels, too.
So if the industry collapses, as many people predict, will artists and listeners be
better or worse off? In any case, it seems we are about to find out.

Adapted from: Wired