Where is the Music Industry Heading?

Where has the music industry been in the past few years? Even worse, where is it headed? Every year, sales seem to keep slipping, and more artists are losing motivation. What can we do as consumers? For one, we can write articles and act to help generate a movement, and make people aware of the problem. We can also buy more CDs, especially now that certain retailers are selling for below $10. If you prefer to download digitally, that can be done as well. Throughout the article, you can find various resources which will help consumers do their part to save the music industry.

Our economy is consumer driven, and we are in quite a recession. Therefore, all types of industries are going south; music being one of the many. So the first thing we can do to help is spread the word. Why should we care about saving the music industry? For one, we don't want new artists like Soulja Boy gaining confidence in their "singing" abilities. Music is also one of our main productivity and confidence boosters. If we didn't have good music, how much tougher would it be to get things done? Lastly, most independent music artists don't rake in enough money to make a living, and they will be stuck there until they get discovered. With the current state of the music industry, it looks like we will be dealing with situations like these for a long time. Only the consumer can do something about it.

There are many places where we can go to purchase music, so don't just think that you're limited to a small amount of record stores or online shops. Here is a compiled list of some of the places where you can go to buy/sample/obtain music to help support the crippled industry.

Online Stores:

New Retail Music

www.amazon.com
www.buy.com
www.circuitcity.com
www.bestbuy.com
www.deepdiscount.com
www.barnesandnoble.com
www.tower.com
www.cduniverse.com

Sell/Buy Used Music

www.secondspin.com
www.spun.com
www.wherehouse.com
www.cashforcds.com

Digital Subscription Services/Online Music

www.itunes.com
www.rhapsody.com
www.napster.com
www.emusic.com

Other/Social Networking

www.last.fm
www.imeem.com
www.seeqpod.com
www.pandora.com

As you can see, there are so many ways that consumers can get out and support their favorite artists, or just discover new ones. As a Rhapsody subscriber, getting a very large selection of music for the price of 1 album every month is a great deal. It lets you discover new music, listen to the old classics, and even some exotic world music when you are in the mood for it. New services like Imeem and Last.fm let you connect with others who like the same music as you, and Pandora uses the Music Genome Project to find other music that you may like. So now you have no excuses not to get out there and do some good for the music industry today.