Death of the Compact Disc

Source: http://offthemark.com/search-results/key/music+downloading/

SPICE by the Spice Girls was the first album I bought with my own savings when I was back in grade school--a cassette tape. The first CD I bought, with my and my sister's savings since CDs back then were expensive, was by The Moffats. (Yeah yeah, laugh all you like) And yes, I can clearly remember those years when CDs was the trend that I made it a point to buy all the albums of my favorite artists.

Then law school came and I lost hold of the world of music and my passion for collecting CD albums. But it is definitely not law school which ultimately killed it.

A 2010 year-end roundup of album sales in the United States shows that for the fourth straight year, CD sales dropped by 20 percent. Is it really as bad as it sounds? It is.

It is recently found out that "Only 13 albums managed to attain million-selling platinum distinction, compared to the 22 platinum albums that earned it in 2009, which in itself was a paltry total compared to the glory days of compact disc megasales--remember when 'N Sync debuted with 2.42 million sold in a single week? (The year was 2000.) Eminem's "Recovery" was the past year's top-selling album with 3.4 million copies, also not impressive, especially when matched up against the 10 million copies "The Marshall Mathers LP" sold a decade ago. Of those 13 platinum albums in 2010, only four sold over 2 million copies." (Click here for the article)

Music producers and artists alike point to the formidable advent of illegal file sharing as the culprit. Their pleas were heeded as some file sharing systems such as Limewire have already been ordered closed.

Source: http://offthemark.com/search-results/key/music+downloading/

Listeners, however, point their fingers to the music companies themselves, claiming that file sharing has only opened up the eyes of  consumers to the fact that nowadays, music just sucks. Why buy an album when you can find out through the Internet that there are only a few good songs in it? But it is also a harsh reality that most listeners now simply choose to illegally download because it is free.

Having no time for music (apart from being a self-confessed techie idiot), I honestly cannot remember having downloaded music myself. Yes, I may have copied and shared music from friends who, without my knowledge, actually illegally downloaded them; but heck, I do not own an iPod, not even a cheap mp3. I simply listen to the radio.

So, when was the last time YOU bought an album?

- Phebean Belle A. Ramos, entry #8