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1. Comment - Apple: iTunes now the biggest music retailer in US

   (Apr 6, 2008 - 1:21 AM)

   The trend continues, what appears to be a consumer-driven preferred mode of purchase. The youth market, a multi-billion dollar purse controlled by young people from single digit ages to ages in the 20's and 30's, are 'digital natives,' whereas the older consumer is accustomed to physically handling vinyl discs, eight-track and cassette tapes, and Compact Discs. Digital natives are quite comfortable with downloading single songs, or whole 12-song albums through their computers, and enjoying them on their portable devices. Concomitant with this preference is an aversion to blind purchases which often disappoint the consumer, if I am representative of that disappointed market share. I learned long ago it is risky to purchase a CD at $14-$18 American, only to find the only song I've heard on it is the only one I like. Can you imagine 200 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007? Out there in the real world were all those consumers with their new digital devices, eager to fill them with music. And in the days to follow all their envious friends began the quest to own their digital devices, and to buy the downloads to fill them up. It's a new world, and the reluctant 'Christopher Columbuses' of the music industry are awakening to the reality of the consumers' demand, and their only option to supply it in the mode the consumer prefers.
   The good news for indie (musicians marketing themselves independently of the 'big' record labels and publishers) is that they can market their works to the digital natives, globally, via the internet, and can also produce CD's and sell them, while the big labels' CD sales are crumbling. Long live the digital native. www.garyeandrews.com