Download revenue started growing at the same steep rate as CDs had done during the 1980s. It wasn't until 2004 that Steve Jobs was able to coax the major labels into backing a simple, attractive model for music downloads with iTunes. So instead of embracing downloads, the labels pushed back against them with lawsuits, overly onerous licensing deals with emerging music services, and DRM technology requirements.
They were especially afraid of supporting a format that was so easy to copy without authorization. Downloads took up no storage space at all (apart from that of a hard drive) and were easily portable and transferrable, even if the sound quality of MP3 files tended not to be as good.īut very few music downloads in the late '90s were legal. By that point, CDs had a run of 15 years of double-digit growth and nine years as the most lucrative recorded-music format the record labels weren't interested in supporting anything that would disrupt that momentum. Music downloads appeared in the late 1990s, at the height of the CD era.
CDs didn't just grow industry revenue at normal rates, as cassettes did over LPs they took the industry to staggering heights. They became huge - not least because many people repurchased digitally remastered titles on CD that they already owned on scratchy vinyl or mangled cassettes. CDs outdid both cassettes and vinyl with superior sound quality, easy access to individual tracks, and increased capacity. That same year, the CD hit the North American market. This introduced the world to high-quality personal portable on-demand listening by 1983, cassettes led the industry in revenue. But the innovation that really lifted cassettes' importance was the iconic Sony Walkman in 1979. Not only did cassettes supersede 8-tracks in the car, they also became viable alternatives to vinyl in the home. Then, in the early 1970s, cassettes became capable of good sound quality in a more convenient package. Eight-track tapes came along in the mid-1960s as a way of playing music on demand in cars. In the late 1940s, 33 rpm LPs and 45 rpm singles came along, and vinyl began to replace shellac. Vinyl (actually shellac) recordings came out before the turn of the 20th century, but the industry really came into being in 1925 when vinyl disc speed became standardized at 78 rpm, making it possible to play discs from any label on any record player.
This chart shows the five eras, which are defined by the music delivery format that produced the most revenue during the period.
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