Digital takeover

Since its 1998 peak, the music industry has been tanking.

Global revenue from recorded music has halved from nearly $30 billion before leveling off to about $15 billion in the past few years. In the United States, recorded-music revenue suffered a similar free fall, cratering in 2011 at $4.5 billion before mildly recovering to $4.9 billion last year.

Now for the first time since its Napster-induced cliff dive, the industry is poised to grow faster than the national economy, at greater than 8 percent, according to New York’s New Music Seminar. Factor in the lower overhead implicit in digital delivery and this means far greater profitability.

Read this story in its entirety at Phoenix New Times’ site, here.