Think back a decade or two. How did you listen to your music back then? How did you buy it? Times have really changed a great deal since then.
The music business was thriving then, since albums would typically sell at a rate of over a dollar per song. Then there were the singles as well, which only consisted of 2 or 3 tracks and sold like hotcakes.
Were you ever a member of Columbia House? Do you remember their initial offers of 12 CDs for 99 cents and the like? Those were extremely tempting since all those albums would ordinarily cost a couple hundred dollars.
Once the world went digital, the entire landscape altered. People began downloading MP3s, with each file only consisting of a few megabytes. As hard drives became bigger, it was possible to build up huge libraries of music without running out of space.
There was no iTunes back then. While it was possible to buy a few albums digitally here and there, the music industry was still pushing its physical CDs harder than anything else.
People started coming up with ways to find their music for free. Whether they were downloading with Napster, Limewire, or some other third party software, you could suddenly find almost anything you wanted within seconds.
Several years later, this trend has somewhat died out due to the fact that record labels have finally partnered up with some websites to offer unlimited access to music libraries and full albums. Listeners all over the world are better off for this.
How do you get your music today? Are you old fashioned, still buying the albums and putting them into your stereo? Do you download your music free of charge? Do you buy digital albums and singles? Or, have you migrated to a streaming service?
The music business was thriving then, since albums would typically sell at a rate of over a dollar per song. Then there were the singles as well, which only consisted of 2 or 3 tracks and sold like hotcakes.
Were you ever a member of Columbia House? Do you remember their initial offers of 12 CDs for 99 cents and the like? Those were extremely tempting since all those albums would ordinarily cost a couple hundred dollars.
Once the world went digital, the entire landscape altered. People began downloading MP3s, with each file only consisting of a few megabytes. As hard drives became bigger, it was possible to build up huge libraries of music without running out of space.
There was no iTunes back then. While it was possible to buy a few albums digitally here and there, the music industry was still pushing its physical CDs harder than anything else.
People started coming up with ways to find their music for free. Whether they were downloading with Napster, Limewire, or some other third party software, you could suddenly find almost anything you wanted within seconds.
Several years later, this trend has somewhat died out due to the fact that record labels have finally partnered up with some websites to offer unlimited access to music libraries and full albums. Listeners all over the world are better off for this.
How do you get your music today? Are you old fashioned, still buying the albums and putting them into your stereo? Do you download your music free of charge? Do you buy digital albums and singles? Or, have you migrated to a streaming service?
