There's no denying that the music industry has undergone some tremendous change in the last thirty years. It wasn't too long ago that cassettes dominated music sales in the 1980's but the emergence of CDs put paid to that - at one point making up an incredible 95% of global music sales.

The advent of digital music has both helped and hindered the traditional means of music distribution. From the consumer's point of view digital music has revolutionised the way we receive it, introducing a previously unimagined level of immediacy. On the other hand, some people argue that a person's relationship with a record, or even a CD, cannot be replicated in the digital realm as more and more people begin to purchase or stream individual songs from outlets like iTunes and Spotify.

Whichever way you look at it there's little denying that the music industry has experienced an advanced state of flux over the last decade and whether or not this is a good thing for the medium will be a source of great debate for many years to come.

(via Stereogum)