How is the music industry being affected by iTunes and similar Research Paper

How is the music industry being affected by iTunes and similar services - Research Paper Example This work "How is the music industry being affected by iTunes and similar services?" outlines how the introduction of iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, Zune Marketplace and Rhapsody have changed the music industry business. Instead of buying the whole CD just for one song people nowadays prefer buying their favorite single. Previously people were forced to buy the whole album of a particular artist or band on CD if they liked a particular song however now people have the choice of buying only the song they prefer instead of the whole album. This means that people save on their cost and can buy many more such singles instead of wasting their money on just a single album, whose songs they will hardly listen to except for that one song. Hence services like Amazon and iTunes allow people to choose amongst various songs from a plethora of songs in their database. With services such as iTunes, music has become increasingly accessible for the consumers. It is now very easy to transfer your favor ite song to your handheld device allowing you to listen to your favorite song on the go. Instead of going to the neighborhood’s music shop to buy the album that had your favorite song now you can just sit at home and buy your favorite song online. Artists who worked hard on making their whole album a success are at a disadvantage as others can easily steal their spotlight by introducing their one single hit and then disappearing into anonymity. This has led to a decline in the artists’ creativity.... This means that people save on their cost and can buy many more such singles instead of wasting their money on just a single album, whose songs they will hardly listen to except for that one song. Hence services like Amazon and iTunes allow people to choose amongst various songs from a plethora of songs in their database. With services such as iTunes, music has become increasingly accessible for the consumers. It is now very easy to transfer your favorite song to your handheld device allowing you to listen to your favorite song on the go. Instead of going to the neighborhood’s music shop to buy the album that had your favorite song now you can just sit at home and buy your favorite song online. Artists who worked hard on making their whole album a success are at a disadvantage as others can easily steal their spotlight by introducing their one single hit and then disappearing into anonymity. This has no doubt led to a decline in the artists’ creativity as we no longer s ee albums with all the songs that were a hit. On the other hand however, there has been an increase in the sale of individual songs because they are cheaper than the whole album. In fact by 2010, iTunes had sold 10,000,000,000 songs and the online music store is still going strong with consumers buying thousands of songs from the iTunes store every day. However the increase in sales does not add that much in revenue that it can offset the decline in revenue from the fall in sales of music CDs. In a study conducted by Elberse, she found out that for every one percent rise in the consumers who shift to buying music online there is a six percent drop in the sale of albums. Sales of a ‘mixed bundle’ (the album plus its single) fell from $15000 in 2005 to just $7000 in 2007 (a staggering