Is Piracy the Only Reason for Declining Record Sales?

Last week I shared a tweet from a New York Times article I read about the fact that piracy is the main reason that record industry sales have declined by 30% over the past 5 years (read the article here http://s.nyt.com/u/rcl). And the response that I received from the post was why I posted in the first place - i don't believe it's just piracy that is causing this decline, but our listening habits which don't require people to buy as much music anymore. And I posted to see if anyone agreed - and they did.

If you're a Pandora junkie (like I am), or listen to other streaming music services, you can discover vast amounts of music, and set up radio stations of your favorite genres and artists. If you listen to them regularly (again like I do) - at work, in the car, while working out - you hardly have the need to go buy the stuff anymore.

Personally, I still like purchasing a collection of songs from an artist because I love the experience of listening to an album from front to back for the "story" that some artists still tell in the whole collection. So while I haven't stopped buying completely, I do have to admit that I buy less than I use to because I have access to such a diverse music library on the web - and it's all free.

What about you? Leave a comment and tell me what you think.

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