The Digital and the Dying
The writer of a 2006 Washington Post article on the closing of Tower Records described the changing music industry saying, “Anything that can be squeezed down to ones and zeros and moved around at the speed of electrons doesn't have to be stacked in plastic cases, shoved into bins and splayed over aisles under fluorescent lights anymore.” For artists, labels and small record store owners alike, music has become something that can't be bought solely in physical form. It is no longer defined only by CDs, cassettes, or even vinyl that came before those formats, but – most commonly now – by bytes, bits per second, and digital properties that music fans see scrolling across the faces of their various MP3 players. Jeff Watson, who has worked at Warner Brothers Records for eight years, has personally seen the negative effects of this change in the form of online music piracy. “Since I started at WBR, I've watched physical sales go down each year, while file sharing has increased...