Link: Can Music Sales Get Any Worse? Just Watch | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD
Let's see...
The music industry was 5 years late in giving consumers the ability to download music legally.
They spend more time suing people who want music than innovating around better delivery.
They shut down anyone who tries to innovate.
I don't think it's really the economic slowdown that's the real issue here.
Besides, given that they're selling a digital asset, and that word of mouth has never ever been as fast and as cheap, shouldn't they still be making record profits despite 20% off the top?
I was at the GM pension plan when we took a piece of the Time Warner Music buyout. In the first year, Thomas H. Lee Partners was able to take gobs and gobs of cash out of the business in pure overhead--consolidation of labels, cutting bloated marketing spend.
The music industry, like the auto industry, is going to have to learn to do more with less.