Competition Between Independent and Traditional Publishing
Independent music sales volume is difficult to track, but in 2010 independent retailer CD Baby claimed to have sold over 5 million CDs during its lifetime. CD Baby no longer reports its number of CDs sold, but in 2010 claimed to have paid a total of $107 million to artists over its lifetime and currently claims that this figure is now over $200 million.
Apple has announced the they have sold over 16 billion songs through their iTunes service. Most of this is “mainstream” music, and doesn't reflect access by new content producers to the market, but it does indicate significant competition with traditional CD sales.
Whether the sales from non-traditional sources come mostly from tapping into an expanding market or from siphoning sales away from traditional CD distribution is difficult to assess in the face of the RIAA's claim that music piracy causes 12.5 billion dollars damage to the US economy annually.
Read more about this topic: Independent Music
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