After Apple’s iTunes Music Store debuted on April 28, 2003, sales of 99-cent digital singles surged. But that had a disastrous impact on overall music revenue.

Discussion:  iTunes has officially existed for a full decade, and during that time has drastically changed how people access and listen to music, as well as the music industry as a whole.  iTunes has been a source of frustration for the music industry as music sales have plummeted by nearly half since 2003, but during this same time, people have been buying more music than ever.  The cheap digital single can be purchased and listened to from almost anywhere.  Last year, there were 1.4 billion digital singles sold, more than three-quarters of all music-related transactions, and iTunes was responsible for 63% of all digital music sales.

Source:  CNN News

Date:  April 25, 2013

Link:  http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/25/technology/itunes-music-decline/index.html

Discussion Questions:

• What is the next big thing in digital music that is rapidly adding users?
• Why would iTunes not have made as big of an impact on the music industry if it hadn’t been preceded by the iPod?