Week 2: Recorded Music c 1999-2010

Question 1

What were music revenues like in 2010?

Answer 1

music revenues were half of what they were in 1999

Question 2

What caused the massive drop in music revenue?

Answer 2

Piracy

Question 3

Popular audio form in the 80s

Answer 3

Sony Walkman
*poor quality

Question 4

Popular audio form in the 90s

Answer 4

CDs

Question 5

Napster

Answer 5

released in 1999 and was a way to pirate mP3s on the internet

Question 6

Explain how piracy wasn’t the only problem that drove down sale

Answer 6

-unit sales of recorded music increased during this time while revenues dropped (indicates that piracy wasn’t the sole problem)
-studios switched from albums (which are bundles) to single digital sales for $1
-people began just buying the few songs from the album that they actually liked
-this became especially popular with the release of digital downloads in the iTunes store

*piracy indirectly hurt the recording industry by making them abandon bundling