Download music sales exceed pirate downloads

According to Wired magazine May06 edition pg 058 (not on their website for some reason) Matt Honan reports that 11+ million users now download songs that are sold and only 10 million frequent song download networks yet the music industry is just as sick as ever.

The problem: The download sites mainly sell 99 cent singles.

As a musician and a former member of the music industry myself I know the value of the album format. How many people would have known about "Levee breaks" or "Going to California" if "Stairway to Heaven" was available as a single?

Simple solution: Sell the album for $8 (15$ less shipping and packaging and storage costs) by allowing punters to unlock all the other tracks in an album when they buy one track.

For a bit of a reality check:

1. Allowing their songs to be included in compilations are the artists choice and it's the same as batch buying singles anyway.
2. The album format is not necessarily a conspiracy by the record companies to get you to pay for music you don't want.
3. Most musicians, myself included tend to write in batches with an album representing a stage, a snapshot in the artists journey so maybe its time for the record companies to deliver a discounted online album price and for the punters to open up to the idea of an album experience rather than a smorgasbord of only the most popular tracks from each album.

Time to get off the soapbox...