The old model of packaged product may be in its death throes . . . traditional distribution channels (including the latest online rip-off merchants).

Reality check!

I think the idea that the old model of packaged product is on the way out is mostly folklore, misinformation and media-led wishful thinking. Today's Guardian reported that 2009 album sales were down only 3.5% on 2008 and this in a year claimed to be the worst recession since the 30s with many high street outlets for CDs closing. Can't find the report quickly, but within the last month they also reported that the UK's CD prices were the lowest in Europe and that it was online retailers who had pushed the average price down. Hardly "rip-off merchants" then.

I also think that the majority of falls in CD sales over the past decade have been almost entirely singles (which the same report says were their highest ever last year, but 98% downloads) and the sort of impulse-buy TV advertised pop product that the great unwashed might have grabbed in Woollies or Virgin (RIP). Real music fans, quite a small percentage of the general population, still prefer real things to collect and the figures would indicate they're buying just as much. Not, however, concentrated on the sort of stuff the mammoth multinationals like Sony or Universal put out, but spread across a much wider range of music and independent labels.

I've been led to believe that the total units sold are not really decreasing but they are spread over more titles, so the average quantity sold per title is less. Also that what looks like a big fall in CD sales is only when you measure it by the total income from them because prices have dropped so much. It doesnt seem so long ago that the tabloids were screaming that nonsense about "CDs cost 50p to make, sell for £14, record labels are ripping us off for £13.50 profit", ignoring costs like VAT, shop margins, distributor margins, recording costs, promotional costs, songwriter royallties etc etc etc. Now the average sale price of a CD is probably more like £8-£10 via those "online rip-off" merchants.