Music Sales up 10% in 2008

According to Nielsen SoundScan, music sales have increased 10% year-over-year since 2007. The growth in sales is mostly attributed to digital sales, which are up 10%, but can also be attributed to vinyl sales, which are up 89% (though they make up a much much smaller part of the market). Of course the death of physical cds continue to linger with their sales being down 14% from 2007. For a more in depth look check out this article.

Playing to Make a Living

MoreIntellegentLife.com has posted an interesting and lengthy article about the current business model in the music industry and how musicians must constantly tour to make a living. Check out the article here.

Apple removes DRM Copy Protection from iTunes

Apple announced today that they would be removing Digital Rights Management (DRM) Copy Protection from 8 million of the 10 million songs that they currently sell via iTunes. This now makes the majority of music sold through online retailers DRM free (something Amazon has been doing since they started selling downloadable content). Apple is also expected to roll out a new tiered pricing strategy similar to Amazon.com with songs ranging from $0.79 to $1.29. Songs purchased prior to today can be upgraded to DRM free for $0.30 each (or for free by burning them on a cd and then importing them back on to your computer).