From the old gray lady:
"Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group, says it has reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit: more than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones."
Also noted in the article is that, overall, less music is being sold. Chris Anderson is right, everything that becomes digital becomes free, legitimately or not.
"As a result, the hope that digital revenue will eventually compensate for declining sales of CDs — and usher in overall growth — have largely been dashed." This means that Chris Anderson is also wrong: the web is not spurring sales by making obscure content more findable.
I like Jeff Zucker's quote, the media industry is "trading analog dollars for digital pennies".
To counteract the effect of low pricing on digital products, the music industry is focusing on the "experience" of music: concerts, etc. Where mp3s distance the consumer as far as possible from the musician, concerts bring them as close as the stagehands allow.
Perhaps publishing can learn from this concept of proximity as added-value. If consumers embrace the digital book, maybe the author tour will become more critical.
There's another lesson, too. Atlantic Records is replacing CD sales with "small bits of revenue from many sources: Atlantic Records’ digital sales include ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio, iTunes sales and subscription services.". Maybe Nolo is ahead of the curve with its repurposing of non-fiction books into ebooks, books on tape/podcasts, and software.
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