Hasta La Gadget!

According to a recent study by Strategy Analytics, a market analysis firm that helps companies identify trends and market data, next year will be the first year that digital music sales will overtake CD music sales in the United States. If you’re asking yourself “people still buy CDs?” you’d be surprised to know that traditional CD sales in the US brought in $3.8 billion in revenue last year, and is expected to drop to around $2.7 billion in 2012. 

Clearly there are still people buying CDs, and lots of them: the market isn’t going anywhere. At the same time, digital music sales are on the rise and have been for years, but the firm predicts that next year digital music sales – with Apple’s iTunes Music Store leading the way – will top $2.8 billion. 

The report also notes that for all of those billions of dollars, music labels are still “struggling,” as the overall music market is still shrinking overall. Fewer people are buying music in general, and the report notes that the entire industry will shrink from $6.2 billion in total sales in 2010 to $5.5 billion in 2012. They note that digital sales, while growing, aren’t growing as fast as music labels would like. 

The cause of the overall shrinking is up for debate: the RIAA and industry groups claim piracy is to blame, while other groups note that streaming services that offer free ad-supported music on demand are taking the lead, and still other groups blame the death of the traditional album: more people are spending $0.99 for individual songs they want instead of spending $20 for the entire album because the individual song wasn’t available on its own. 

[via Electronista]