Gee... what a shocker! With more tech gadgets allowing for music to be played with greater quality and availability, this should not be news. But it is reassuring.
According to industry tracker Nielsen, 2008,total music sales rose 10 percent to 1.51 billion units sold, up from 1.36 billion units the year before. These numbers include physical albums, digital albums and tracks, and music videos. However, digital music was the largest contributer to the growth. For instance,legal music downloads (i.e. those from sites such as iTunes and AmazonMP3), were up 29 percent from the same period a year earlier.
It is also very noteworthy to recognize the Recording Industry Association of America in December said that it would dramatically slow down it's practice/bad habits of suing people that it suspected of illegal sharing of copyrighted music.
With less legal fees haunting users and better equipment to download, 2009 should offer an even greater growth in this field. However, don't lose sight of the value of owning a disc, record or even cassette. There is still value in the beauty of cover art and the education available with in liner notes. Artististic talents are hidden there and it would be a pity to see them gone forever.
