More on our on-going discussion about music downloading: the Washington Post chimes in with a piece about the renewed importance of the single – MP3 style, not 45 RPM style. "Laffy Taffy," by the Atlanta rap group D4L (you’ve heard it, right?) has been downloaded (legally) 700,000 times since October. “The song's success illustrates how commercially released singles, which were on the music industry's endangered-species list at the turn of the 21st century, have come roaring back to life in the digital age. In some ways, it's like the singles-driven 1950s and '60s all over again.”
In 2005, albums represented roughly 62 percent of all U.S. music sales; digital singles came in at about 35 percent. In 2002 albums figured at more than 90 percent of music sales in the US.
The industry is still trying to figure out how to make money in this new world. Artists, too: “Artists typically receive between 14 and 24 cents on the dollar (or, rather, the 99 cents) for the sale of a digital single, whereas they earn closer to $2 on the sale of a full-length album.” The article goes on to quote singer / guitarist Jason Wade: "There's really not that much money to be made on 99 cents. It's better than nothing. It's better than people getting your song for free. But it's not big money. . . . You even wind up losing some album sales, because if you have a hit single now, a lot of people will just download the one song instead of buying the album."
Head of Yahoo Music just asked the music industry to give up on DRS - digital rights management.
Not likely to happen, but a realization that rights management isn't working. Oddly enough, the majority of music is still purchased legally.
Also, Jeff numbers are really that bad. If a CD has 10 songs on it and the artist is receiving $2 per CD sold. It is the equivalent of 20 cents a single.
Posted by: DS | February 26, 2006 at 08:50 AM