Overly subsidized ... venture capital creating falsely "free" or depressed pricing. Once you give it away it's hard to charge for it. 

Please pardon the misspellings and occassional insane word substitution I'm on an iPhone

> On Apr 15, 2015, at 1:59 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Reported in today's Wall Street Journal, with an equally depressing graphic:
> 
> 1. 1996 global music sales as reported by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry: $40 billion.
> 
> 2. 2004 global music sales as reported by IFPI: $21 billion.
> 
> 3. 2015 global music sales as reported by IFPI: about $15 billion.
> 
> 3a. World population in 1996 was about 5.8 billion. In 2014, it was 7.2 billion (U.N. figures)
> 
> 3b. 1996-2014, global gross domestic product from about 40 trillion US dollars to over 100 trillion US dollars (economywatch.com)
> 
> 4. In 2015, for the first time, downloads and streaming sales total was higher than CDs and other physical media: $6.9b vs. $6.8b. (the remaining $1.3 billion in sales came from radio airplay and songs licensed for movies and video).
> 
> 5. Net-net, phyiscal media is now about 45% of total music sales, and still losing ground. Streaming/subscription is the growth area. Downloads are also sliding. The world of artwork, physical product and ownership of one's purchased music is slipping away. Furthermore, recorded music appears to be of declining value to an increasing world population with increased spending power.