The music industry
Oct 15th 2008 | From
The Economist
online
Falling CD sales
have plagued the music industry since 2000. Blaming online file-swapping services, the four big record companies—Warner Music, EMI, Universal and Sony/BMG—have advocated using DRM (digital rights management) software to protect music files. But
support for
DRM began to crumble in 2007
; EMI dropped it, and Wal-Mart and Amazon sell songs without it. The labels are also pursuing
internet radio stations
, which often fail to pay royalties. The artists, meanwhile, are making more money than ever from concerts, prompting record labels to try and sign “
360º contracts
” that encompass live music, merchandise and endorsement deals. Hiding the cost of music subscriptions in the price of devices such as mobile phones may offer a
promising new model
. Video games are also
boosting
music sales for some artists.
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