Mass Communication: Sound Recording...specifically CDs

     According the the textbook, the digital revolution has caused a seismic shift in the way conusmers buy and store music. Throughout much of recent history, the recording industry sold collections of songs, called albums, in a variety of formats: vinyl records, tape cassettes, and plastic CDs. Typically, consumers found that there were only two or three songs per album that they actually liked, but they were still forced to buy the whole collection. The digital revolution put more power in the hands of the consumers, who could now buy and download only those songs that they liked. Needless to say, conusmers began abandoning the album format. Sales of CD albums have been slowly declining since 2000. They dropped 19 percent from 2007 to 2008. Meanwhile, the number of digital downlaods increased an impressive 45 percent in that same period. It doesn't take a genius to see that the old way of selling music is on the way out. Unfortunately for record companies, the increased revenue from downloading of individual tracks is not enough to make up for the losses from the decrease in CD album sales.