Bye, bye, Miss American Pie (chart)

Interestingly after several years of literally doing nothing, the majors have adopted the Internet in their business model in order to address the issues. It is now quite common to purchase music files from hundreds of legal websites. However two significant developments have occurred. First, albums are not necessarily being downloaded, but rather single songs - and some for as low as 10 cents (a far cry from the current $5 CD single price tag). Second, despite the proliferation of legal websites, P2P platforms such as Azureus which use "BitTorrent" software make it all too tempting for young and old alike to download whole albums illegally.

Illegal and legal technological challenges, combined, have caused traditional music products to become so diminished in value that it is doubtful whether commodified pop music as peddled by the majors will ever again become the leading mode of cultural consumption. More problematic for the majors is that the Internet has permitted new musical discoveries - truly independent music completely unfettered by the majors' control and the need for chart music.

If these trends continue, then it would be safe to assume that music products will become third-line cultural products or probably entirely "de-commodified" (that is, the consumption of music in any recorded form would always have intrinsic worth, but its ability to be sold as "units" may not have any commercial potential).

I do not suggest music will ever die. For example, concert attendance could not be better, and the proliferation of truly independently released music in recent years has had an almost emancipatory effect on the industry. Rather, the commodification of chartable pop music will be a thing of the past. Even if the sale of Top 40 chart music survives, its life will be meaningless in real commercial terms.