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Well, it's like books and newspapers nowadays. The sales will never be as high as they were, it's just the most loyal consumers now.
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Actually, that's incorrect, at least in Australia. Brick-and-mortar sales for books are currently significantly higher than digital sales, and far in excess of the doomsday predications from the turn of the Century. Once Borders/Angus & Robertson closed down, everyone thought it was the end, but the real problem was that the prices in those stores were just too high and they tried to pull a few scams with their gift cards that didn't bode too well for their future either.
Likewise, everyone who doesn't work in the newspaper industry thinks that the sale of the physical edition had plummeted. It's like a goddamned broken record—to use a not-so-clever pun—I hear every single day. I'm currently the manager for the distribution of the two largest newspapers in Sydney's western suburbs, and we have only lost about 15% of home delivery sales in the past 15 years, but the price of the paper has increased by 40% to combat those figures, so it really hasn't affected the industry at all. We still average about 10,000 sales per suburb, per week. It's nowhere near what the industry did in the 70's and 80's, but we're still well above target. The territory adjacent to mine just sold for $300,000, and their sales are around a quarter-less than mine.
I do think most people prefer to have something physical when it comes to reading. Although the Kindle is fantastic, and I can't praise it enough, I'll never give up my actual books because it is a far superior experience. Music, however, in my opinion, whether you're using a vinyl, or a CD, or a digital file, all comes out of a speaker in the end.
Of course, now I'm the guy on the wrong side of the fence, trying to tell the owner how to trim their garden. Each to their own!
New 'N' Tasty Official Soundtrack announced.
