Decline in Music Sales: Piracy or Not? That is the question!

Online piracy has become the biggest scapegoat for the music industry claiming that they are the reason for decline in music sales. They say that the recession of 2008 is a minor reason behind the decrease in sales of the music industry but the biggest player is the illegal act of online piracy.

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which hasn't released 2010 numbers, said 2009 retail sales from physical media like compact discs and albums dropped 20% from a year earlier to $4.38 billion and more than offset a 19% jump in sales from digital sales. Overall, U.S. music sales fell 12% in 2009 to about $7.69 billion, according to the RIAA."

"Illegal music downloads have fallen off markedly since peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing giant LimeWire shut down in October 2010. The number of P2P users downloading music late last year fell almost 45% from three years earlier to about 16 million people, NPD Group said in a report released last week."

 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/02/music-industry-sings-a-sad-song-on-sales-despite-a-sharp-drop-of/

According to these quotes from the article, it is saying that physical cd sales are dropping by 20% while digital sales are increasing by 19%. This is a 1% difference so it is kind of cancelling itself out. It also quotes that music sales altogether dropped 12% to about $7.69 billion. Did they say billion? So, the music industry is still thriving and has remained a billion dollar industry due to the evolution of music in becoming digital.