Illegal Downloads Costing Music Industry $10 Billion
Illegal downloads could be costing the music industry $10 billion — the very amount by which the global industry has declined since 1999, according to a recent report from ContentNext.
“Playing a New Tune: The Music Industry’s D-I-Y Era” authored by former newspaper analyst Lauren Rich Fine examines the changing value chain in the music industry as it has migrated to the Internet, looks at the state of the most significant online alliances/initiatives, and charts the M&A and venture-fund activity have helped shape the industry over the past few years.
Among the highlights:
- Entrepreneurial artists have more opportunities than ever to make it without the backing of a label;
- Transaction activity in the music industry has been robust from 2006-08, with over 150 deals valued at $11.2 billion;
- The music industry is still searching for a business model as the Internet has cannibalized CD sales, yet the pace of innovation and sense the industry has come close to bottoming makes it seemingly safer for investment;
- MySpace Music has a lot of competition.
The full 34-page report is available here.
Meanwhile, Barry Graubart at ContentMatters has Five Questions for Lauren Rich Fine, on the topic of the outlook for traditional media.
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