Current Events Analytic Response

The CD is one of the most controversial issues in music today. While almost all professional musicians still use them, sales of CDs have been rapidly declining for years. This is primarily due to the rise of Internet sites that allow for free downloading of music. People usually will not go out and buy a CD when they can obtain the exact same material for free from their own home. There is debate over whether or not this is actually hurting artists, as more people will hear their music, which could help to build a strong fanbase. Regardless, these new forms of downloading music are changing the industry, for better of for worse. Now that most people buy just one song off iTunes, or download only the tracks that they want to hear, the idea of a concept album will be much more rare. It will still happen, just as some people still buy records, but it will not be attemped as often. While most mainstream musicians suffer greatly from the lack of CD sales, underground bands have not had as much of a problem keeping their sales up. Generally, the less mainstream a band is, the more devoted their fans will be, although there are less fans. While those who argue that CDs aren't dead and/or dying point out that CDs make up 3/4 of all music sold, they don't give any tmeframe for that, and probably have no way of knowing exactly how much music is downloaded illegally from many interenet sites, so this statistic is flawed. They do make a good point when they say that CDs aren't completely done, they are just becomnig more and more difficult to sell. It is possible that CDs will come back if the methods of CD sale are completely revamped to keep up with the changing times. For now, we know that the music industry is changing, we just don'tknow where its going.