Issues

There is plenty of controversy surrounding new media technologies, which is probably great for business. Warner Music, EMI, Sony BMG and Vivendi Universal claim music piracy is having an 'absolutely calamitous' impact on US earnings, putting industry employees out of work and wreaking havoc with record label bottom lines. So we can see that music on the Internet is a double-edged sword, as it were, particularly from the POV of record labels. Transactions online for music has certainly soared, but it can be argued that spending has actually decreased, as we can now buy one song from an album, instead of having to buy the whole album.

Developments in television technology are considerable, too. The possible physical size of TVs is giant, and digital has opened up massively the space available for aspiring presenters, directors and writers. However, children are watching more and more television, and are getting fatter and fatter and doing less and less exercise:

I. FAMILY LIFE
Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99
Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24
Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66
Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
Number of hours of TV watched annually by Americans: 250 billion
Value of that time assuming an average wage of S5/hour: S1.25 trillion
Percentage of Americans who pay for cable TV: 56
Number of videos rented daily in the U.S.: 6 million
Number of public library items checked out daily: 3 million
Percentage of Americans who say they watch too much TV: 49

II CHILDREN
Approximate number of studies examining TV's effects on children: 4,000
Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful
conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV
and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

We can also draw links with violence:

Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000
Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000
Percentage of Americans who believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem: 79

While Sky and digital has indeed meant more room for informative channels and 24-hour news reporting, are these really the most popular channels? I think not. The government recently considered banning TV-viewing for the under-3s, thank god.

I think the physical album will retain its position as most quality purchase. There's still nothing like going into HMV and paying £10ish for a CD and the artists' artwork. Sales have and will continue to decrease, but won't diminish completely. Stores will simply find ways to keep up.