Crunching the Music Biz Numbers at the Dawn of 2008

Authored by Jay Baage on January 25, 2008 - 7:57am.

In spite of saying the it's Monday, when it's Friday, Ars Technica's daily video report (embedded above) has a good quick analysis of the IFPI report on the state of the music industry (as well as their latest plans to make ISPs into copyright cops). For a more detailed analysis, check out this article from the same site, which gives you a great overview of the biz. While the numbers are bad, I would stress that there are also more positive signs of more innovative thinking out there as parts of the industry is dropping copy-protection and that is a good step in the right direction (to stop thinking about music as packaged goods and more in terms of a service that takes consumer needs and wants into consideration). To keep it in perspective, the music industry is still on a steap decline and it has a long way to go to transform into a sustainable business in a digital age, just take a look at Ars Techica's graph below.