For anyone who is a fan of music you have to wonder about the future of music. With continuing loses where will the money come from needed to support the development of music and artists? It’s a very scary future for music ahead. Here is an excerpt of the Guardian article:
Despite the best efforts of Adele and Coldplay, the increasing popularity of digital downloads and even a modest resurgence in vinyl, music sales in the UK declined for a seventh successive year in 2011.
According to the latest figures from the BPI, combined sales of digital and physical albums fell overall by 5.6% to 113.2m last year. At the industry peak in 2004, 163.4m albums were sold.
Although digital album sales rose 26.6% to 26.6m, the growth failed to offset the sharp drop in sales of albums on compact disc, which fell by 12.6% year on year to 86.2m. A further 389,000 albums were sold on vinyl and other formats.
The statistics cap yet another turbulent 12 months for the British music industry, which is struggling to cope with losing hundreds of millions of pounds each year to illegal downloads. In November, the debt-ridden record giant EMI – home to the Beatles, Coldplay and Tinie Tempah – was broken up and sold to two of its former rivals, Universal Music and Sony, for £2.5bn.
