Apple managed to completely upend the traditional domestic music retail market with near immediate results after opening the iTunes store… and possibly just in time as RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) had reported a record year of sales for music in 1999 of $14.6B then have declined for nine of the next ten years. In 2009, the industry only made $6.3B.
In 1999, Napster was launched then followed by Gnutella, Kazaa and LimeWire providing an alternative to purchasing CDs and opened doors to mass piracy. Unfortunately for the music industry, iTunes did not open its “doors” until 2003 losing four precious years to the illegitimate download market. Apple provided one of the few legitimate options to purchase music and was definitely the easiest and most consumer-friendly option. At one point, the music industry fought against the opening of iTunes and selling music digitally.
If trending continues, downloading music will continue to grow and purchases of CDs will continue to decline. iTunes and other e-tailers could become the saviors for the music industry. I know I have purchased less than 5 CDs in the past three years and only because they were not available digitially.
The other news item that really interested me was Google TV.