Music in the 21st Century

In relation to the music usage in the last 10 years I used my answer to a previous question as I feel it targetted all key points:

It is obvious that music consuption trends have changed greatly since the 90's. We listen to music in a profoundly different way than we did in the 20th century I believe that a reason to explain this is the introduction of Apple products. Althopugh they didnt invent the portable music player, the vision of Steve Jobs and his company of designers and engineers changed our listening landscape dramatically in 2001 with iTunes and the iPod. Concerts and merchandise are obviously still big favourites with music fans everywhere however their popularity is having no difference - or very little on the revenue of the music industry. Therefore I believe it is essential to focus on the consumption methods which are deeply affecting the music industry, whether that be driving profits up or creating a loss. I don't ever believe there will be a time when music is not listened to or enjoyed, however we need to recognize that there are changes occuring in how we listen to and enjoy our music. As digital music consumption increases and becomes more varied, it is important for artists and consumers to find new ways to engage with the digital landscape - for example, digital music services such as Spotify. They are helping drive this argument by providing a musical discovery and sharing platform which caters for modern consumers, while suppporting the artist and driving increasing revenues back into the music industry. However while we can see that services such as Spotify aim to increase revenues, this is infact not the case, it has shown that sales, especially in albums between the period of 99 and 09 have fell 8% each year. With revenues falling to $6.3billion in 2009, a huge difference compared to the $14.6billion of 1999. The actual sale of music has also proven to have fallen with only 44% of americans who pay for music online believing that that music is worth paying for. Also the volume of anauthorized downloads is not showing any sign of slowing down, as it represents about 90% of the market (according to online download tracker Big Champagne). Music artists are not oblivious to this volume of illegal downloads. Dan Ingala the lead singer of band Plushgun said, 2People will steal music regardless, so it's not worth trying to fight against something where the fights already over." Indeed, he is talking from experience, as when his band released its album on popular site What.cd, it was the most downloaded track with more than 10,000 illegally downloaded tracks. So, for my personal opinion. With some rsearch and examination of graphs illustrating these topics and my own personal experience, I believe that consumption of music has most definitely changed in the 21st century, many will put this down to the double recession we experienced, however I would say that the reasons for this change in comsumption trends has happened simply because the greater platform through which we access music. The only change the 90's had to experience was that from cassette and vinyl to CD. As a teenager, I would most likely agree, that downloading music is a much easier, stress free, cheaper way of getting music, rather than attempting to go the through the process of purchasing it. Therefore, in conclusion, I believe that while consumption trends are changing, consumption levels will not change and that downloading music - legally or illegally is the future. However, no one can predict the future, if we could we would all be millionaires!