Memo to RIAA: You can send your thank-you note to Cupertino
Category: Apple/Mac OS... Music... Tech...
Posted Thursday, January 06, 2005 at 05:29 PM [GMT-6]

Nielsen Soundscan reports that sales of music albums (the hydrocarbon by-product based kind, that is) increased in 2004 for the first time in about four years, according to this Reuters article.

Well, what's up with that? I thought downloads were supposed to mean the death of plasticware music sales.

This is just a guess, but I think that the Apple iPod turned the conventional paradigm on its ear.

Here's a for instance. We're now a two-iPod family, with MLB scoring a mini (silver finish, engraved with her name) for Christmas to go along with the 40 gig model she got me for my birthday last year. We've bought two CDs in the past two weeks -- the first plasticware we've purchased in a couple of years. Both were destined to be ripped to MLB's iPod, and neither were available from the iTunes Music Store.

Sure, downloads (legal and otherwise) probably take away from CD sales, but the "I want the CD to put on my iPod" phenomenon just has to be a large -- and growing -- mitigating factor.