Emerging Industry Overview: Digital Audio Entertainment
Industry Snapshot
Digital audio entertainment--including services that allow consumers to download individual songs or entire albums, as well as portable media players--has significantly impacted the larger music industry. Traditional music recording and distribution continued to struggle as illegal sharing of music files, CD copying, and heightened competition for consumers' entertainment dollars reduced compact disc sales. The music industry continued to lose more than $2 billion annually due to piracy alone. Then in March 2007, citing Nielsen SoundScan data, The New York Timesreported that sales of plastic CDs were surpassed by digital tracks...