Music Sales Down, But are we Concerned?

In a news report by the Recording industry Association of America RIAA, it seems that there has been quite a bit of growth in the digital download sector of the music market, however overall sales continue to decline. According to the report, there were 586 million songs downloaded through online music stores last year, which represented a 60% increase over 2005. Overall value of the record industry was only $11.5 billion which represented a 6% decline over 2005. The hardest hit market being the Latin market, which posted a 21.3% decline.

$11.5 billion. As one comes to think about it, that is a very large number. I will give them a little credit since that is well below the peak number of $45 billion mark of 1997. But still - $11.5 billion. Perhaps it would be easier to care if there were a little less greed plaguing the market all around.

We all know it, and we all see it. Tell me it's no difficult to muster up some sympathy when we see major recording artists every day living a life of opulent luxury. Partying, lavish spending trips, and over the top spending is common place amongst the wealthy music industry elite. And yet there are many people all over the world starving to death, many of them musicians themselves!

I guess it just seems unfair to me, that the music industry greed keeps the rich getting richer. In fact, It is my thought that with a little less greed, the exec's at the major labels might even see sales go up. It is just a thought, but if these super rich artists and executives were able to dismount from their high horse and spread the wealth a little, more people might be more willing to support their cause. It's their call though.