This article higlights the decline in CD sales in America, particularly during the course of this year.  It presents the depressing figures of aggregate album sales and distinguishes the stand-out major record companies and recording artists who lead in a not so impressive track record for 2005. Thus the articles shows how technological advancement has deleteriously affected traditional physical distribution.

In this article featured in the Daily Pennsylvanian Marketing Professor Peter Fader blames downloading for the music industry's plummet. He argues that students will always steal music and that new music will always be leaked onto the internet, but that this is not responsible for the drop in sales.  In fact, it is the legal dowloading that is responsible for the decreasing album sales.

The collaborative fulfillment of consumer orders by Internet retailers and wholesalers has proven important in the realization of sustainable levels of online profitability. Concentrating on consumer direct fulfillment (or drop shipping), an empirical simulation model evaluates avenues for improving logistical performance. The empirical simulation model centers on the online music CD retailing industry. It evaluates the effects of emergency transshipments and demand dispersion on inventory and product-release performance, as well as on transportation costs, in consumer direct fulfillment operations. Results show that emergency transshipments improve inventory and product-release performances in these operations. Furthermore, the inventory-performance improvements are maximized when inventory facilities fulfill demand that is uniformly balanced across markets primarily assigned to each facility. Finally, gains in inventory and release performance obtained from emergency transshipments outweigh additional transportation costs incurred from a greater reliance on emergency transshipments for consumer direct fulfillment. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This article alerts reader to the fact that it has already been three years in which the recording industry has put forth a great effort to persuade music lovers to pay for online songs yet still illegal downloading is widespread and the overwhelming public sentiment is one of apathy. The article says that "s consortium of 6 retailers, including Best Buy Co. and Tower Records, is investing in online service Echo Networks Inc." The music retailers are at their ultimate low and are now considering to become allies with the technology that continues to destroy them.  Many music retailers are announcing plans to get "into the online music business."

The article consider the effect of digital technology on the supply chain for music from the major record labels’ perspectives. Also the effects of piracy on the industry are discussed. The article concludes with a hope outlook for artists and audiences, but strongly asserts that the technological advancements have made it so the record companies will never fully recover or return to the era of opulence in which it reigned for so long.

 

This article  provides a lot of quantifiable information regarding aggregate online sales, total industry revenues and projects estimates for up to the next three years. The article says that though online distribution has taken the music industry by storm, album sales still account for the majority of record sales.  There is still more room for online distribution to increase and CD sales to further decrease. Therefore the article urges the industry to continue to reconsider the way it does business and in addition suggests that "governments will have to think hard about regulatory structures." .

This article discusses the way in which the internet and digital distribution has changed consumption patterns. Strategic Marketing Departments of Record Companies are seeking information on consumer behavior in order to anticipate competitors and to "improve the supply and demand." This article contains an empirical analysis on the industry including on-line survey results that illustrate that music downloading is not the only way in which consumers are tapping into the digital environment.

Music Week reveals that "the number of independent music shops and chains fell sharply in 2004." Ironically, within the same year there was a 63% increase in the number of supermarkets selling music. The closing of independent and chain music stores has encouraged non-music retailers, to experiment with the selling CD's in the UK and US. In the states Walmart accounts for about one-fifth of CD's sold across the nation.

This article discusses the ways in which record companies are compensating for their losses through marketing.  After the Sony/BMG merge, Columbia Record Executive Charlie Walk, leads the way.  He asserts his belief that for the majors to stay in on the game they need to legitimize the online music downloading space and create alliances with consumer-goods companies to make a profit where it is being lost. Thus downloading has changed artist marketing too.

Although the record companies have suffered great economic loss as a result of widespread downloading, they have been able to survive the drastic changes that the industry is undergoing right now.  However the same cannot be said of the traditional music retailer, the majority of which have had to declare banckruptcy or have had to close a number of branch locations.  The article estimates percentages of sales that will account for the future shift from physical to digital distribution in the next several years.

Mark Katz discusses how technology has served to preserve music while also serving as a "catalyst." Katz addresses how the innovation of the internet affected and continues to still affect the industry. He cites a series of case studies, that correlate the new ways of finding and listening to new music and the rising of new music genres to recording technology.

Article discusses how in the past decade the music industry has dramatically changed because of advancements in digital technology. In the past years "bandwidth restrictions" have served to hinder distribution of music in digital form via the Internet but due to the evolving netwrok technology these "restrictions are disappearing." As a result consumers can obtain and listen to high-quality music in digital form directly from the internet, "accelerating the development of the Internet as an infortainment hub, whereby it will become the main conduit for both information and entertainment."

Written by two professors at the Penn in March of this past year addressing how the music industry's revenue has drastically dropped within the past three years. Many argue that this decline in profits is due to file sharing. They obtained data concerning album sales via purchase and downloading as well as consumer valuations from college students. They offer a new estimate of sales displacement caused by downloading.

This paper explores the online or digital distribution of music "as a technology practice" and suggests that this new phenomenon reinforces the "loose integration" of the entertainment industry. Also the paper gives a business background about recording industry conglomerates, ownership infrastructure and the gate-keepers for the global markets.

This article considers the impact of technology and downloading on the "supply chain" of music. It describes economics of the global music market and the super-power five major record that dominate the entire sound recording industry. It has a positive take on the future for artists and consumers alike, despite the present turmoil.

This work seeks to predict the impact of government regulation, in terms of new policy and programs, upon the music field for the future. It raises some ethical questions concerning the direction of technology and tries to account for how technological advancements will influence the national and global economy. The central issue around which the whole work is concerned is the commerce of music.

This book has a chapter dedicated to music industry in relation to the internet. Ian Dobie discusses MP3's and "other cyber music wars" as they serve to threaten the recording industry and contribute to complication of web studies. Also there is a discussion of the effects of technological advancement on the sound recording industry as a business.

This article makes note of the decline in US CD sales in the past four years and highlights figures released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The decline is attributed to Internet downloading because it has dramatically changed the way music is obtained and sold. In addition to acknowledging legal downloading the article spends time discussing illegal downloading of music through peer-to-peer file sharing systems.  Also there is a discussion of the "big box stores" such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart that serve as the most successful music retailers presently.

Josh Madell of New York's Other Music closes his Boston store, which had been his only branch store. The retailer attributes the failed business venture an "Internet-piracy-heavy environment." His Boston store was specifically located in Harvard Square which has proved to be the hub of MP3 users which points to the underlying reality of the time that the majority of college students are not buying albums anymore since downloading hit the scene.

This article asserts the belief that the new downloading craze will result in the closing of the big CD retail chains. Convenience and cheapness they claim wins. However the entire outlook is not negative, the article suggests that these retailers can survive the sweeping technological changes but only if they make some drastic changes and restructuring.

The downward spiral of record companies and the music industry as a result of downloading has made itself most evident in physical distribution. What best illustrates the failure of the struggle that music retailers are now finding themselves in, is the actual closing of stores that were successful and are backed by huge companies. An example being Best Buy Company which recently closed 110 Sam Goody and Suncoast music stores.

This book depicts authorship and copyright as a sociologist would, delving in to the mass culture debate. He grapples with the present phenomenon of bootlegging in mainstream music. This book is known for being the first "academic treatment" of the matter and Lee sets out to correlate Romanticism and capitalism in the act.

Tower Records is the music store with the most street buzz and star power.  It is able to call upon the biggest stars to do in-house performances for album oremiers, yet still this power-house retailer has not been able to escape thewrath of the music download. The article attributes the universal death of the record store to :"decreasing CD sales, the hit from online downloads, and growing competition from the likes of Amazon.com, as well as discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target..."

In this book the Music Research Institute at Berklee College of Music presents a manifesto for the the still unfolding music revolution. While record companies suffer tremendous losses, music is still being made and artists are as prolific as ever. However what has changed is th methods by which the music is being distributed to the masses.  This book discusses the non-traditional methods of CD distribution that are dominating at the present time. 

This article critiques the "crisis of reproduction" that confronted the music industry starting in the late 1990's. It explores some of the ways in which the industry is going about re-working its structure to compensate for its losses.  Also discusses the roles of the big four- AOL-Time Warner, Sony/BMG, Universal and EMI in the reorganization.