Pew Internet & American Life Project - 10 Years After Napster Publishes Monday (June 15th 2009)
The Pew Internet & American Life Project provides an excellent array of surveys and empirical data of the development of online media and its societal influence. The Project has covered music, teen behavior, election fundraising, the digital divide, and a host of issues.
One of their more interesting projects comes out next week. On, Monday, June 15th, it will report "The State of Music Online: Ten Years After Napster."
From the Project release:
Having some statistical data to help assess the changes in the music business and the dramatic shifts in audience access to music should assist the debate over the future of the music industry and the financing and delivery of music. Downloads are expected to overtake CDs as the most popular form of music sale by next year and likely to become the larger source of revenue in the year following. Strategies for giving away music as part of product sales have not proven too popular and the variety of Internet-based music services continues to change as companies struggle to find the right mix of content, service and profitability.
The Pew Report will not end the debate, but it should provide some better grounding for the assumptions in the media. Stay tuned.
One of their more interesting projects comes out next week. On, Monday, June 15th, it will report "The State of Music Online: Ten Years After Napster."
From the Project release:
In the decade since Napster's launch, selling recorded music has become as much of an art as making the music itself. The music industry has been on the front lines of the battle to convert freeloaders into paying customers, and their efforts have been watched closely by other digitized industries - newspapers, book publishing and Hollywood among them - who are hoping to staunch their own bleeding before it's too late.
Having some statistical data to help assess the changes in the music business and the dramatic shifts in audience access to music should assist the debate over the future of the music industry and the financing and delivery of music. Downloads are expected to overtake CDs as the most popular form of music sale by next year and likely to become the larger source of revenue in the year following. Strategies for giving away music as part of product sales have not proven too popular and the variety of Internet-based music services continues to change as companies struggle to find the right mix of content, service and profitability.
The Pew Report will not end the debate, but it should provide some better grounding for the assumptions in the media. Stay tuned.
