First, just look at that graph. Notice there's something off about it, like how there's a hug bump during the 90s? They literally were found guilty of price fixing (and paid pennies for how much they screwed people over) on CDs. People need to stop listening to the music industry's version of events. They're using straight up bullshit logic. They keep citing 90s revenue without adding how revenue was that high because of their anti-competitive practices.
It isn't really bullshit logic, by 1999 they had the tiger by the tail. They had teenagers paying for $20 CDs just to listen to a hit single. Even if you didn't like their business practices at the time you can't argue that the industry revenue has been decimated by a shift to digital music.
If they had not fought digital distribution so much, its possible we wouldn't have seen revenue drop off like that either.
I don't think that is fair, they didn't have the competency to create a digital market like iTunes that was viable. Lets remember until Apple invented the iPod digital music was worthless for many people because it was locked to a computer. The iPod allowed that music to play in a car, or on a workout. But the industry didn't invent the iPod even though it helped determine their destiny. They couldn't have invented the iPod, they didn't know how.
And now, fact is, paying for streaming music is often the best option as then you don't have to worry about the cost of managing a music collection yourself, and you reap benefits (like recommendations of similar music).
Maybe it is the best option for CONSUMERS, but I can cite one article after another where artists or industry executives claim that they can't live on Spotify prices. We don't even know if the Spotify model will work longterm, it isn't a hugely profitable company so far.
Plus not all of the problem is money, some of the problem is leverage and control. The fact that consumers look to iTunes or Spotify as their sources of music (instead of Sony or RCA records or whoever) is just as big of a problem to the music industry as the revenue lost. They no longer control their own destiny because when iTunes or Spotify want something (like a lack of DRM for example) they don't have the leverage to say no. They have to hope that these technology companies make decisions that allow them to stay in business. Spotify is now bigger than they are:
That is a huge shift from 1999 when music companies controlled distribution and could shove CDs down teenage throats via top 40 radio and MTV.
Video content producers actually have been better about responding to streaming because they didn't want to have to turn to someone else to fix it for them like the music industry turned to Apple. Hulu is basically a collaboration between some of the large providers, while others like HBO and Showtime have made their own services.
What we will NOT see, what we will never see as long as they can help it, is ALL the content being under one service like you get with a Spotify. Instead we will end up with a dozen walled gardens- each for every major content maker- so each can control the distribution and have a business relationship with consumers directly. Consumers might prefer Netflix to be their one-stop-shop for video, but the honest truth is Netflix in 2022 will have WAY less content on it than Netflix in 2012 did before they took streaming seriously.
If they hadn't been so adamant about trying to maintain pricing schemes that are decades old, they likely could have leveraged streaming into being better for them as well.
Their issues are all their own faults.
A lot of it was their fault and I am not saying I feel bad for them or anything. I don't look back in time and feel bad about buggy makers who had their industry ruined by cars.
The only point I was trying to make is that what happened to the music industry is a warning sign of what will come to the video producers if they aren't careful. Unlike the music industry or the buggy industry they can see how it will all play out and they are doing everything they can to either slow down that process or stop it. And they are doing a good job honestly with services like Hulu that give the consumers just enough to placate us, but not enough to take apart their older and more profitable business model of TV distribution.