I guess the music industry didn’t do so bad last year afterall…
“There were 220 million ringtone purchases in 2007 resulting in sales of $567 million, and ringtone sales spiked 22 percent in the last week of the year. 91 percent of ringtone sales were mastertones, and the top 100 mastertones sold 65.1 million, accounting for 30 percent of ringtone sales.” - Nielsen Ringscan
While 2007 may have been the year of the consumer, 2008 may very well be the year of the artist. Within the music industry the power pendulum has shifted not to the consumer but to the artist, see Radiohead.
I suspect the artist and record labels that take a D.I.Y approach to recorded music will find alternative streams of revenue that fans will appreciate, because it either saves them time, money or peace of mind.
Let’s see what Madonna’s defection to Live Nation, Prince’s album give-way and Jay-Z’s rumored new record label deal with Apple will mean for us the fans in 2008.
