Originally Posted by rollercoaster:
“Wrong. Many downloaded songs go for 0 because they're from torrents etc. When there was no option but to purchase, of course they'd sell more.
Another thing about Madonna as a different angle to women around for as long as her (or longer) is that she regularly releases material, where as cher etc sometimes take 5 year + breaks between each album.”
Even back in the eighties piracy was a huge impact. Tons of people sat on a Sunday listening to Radio 1 recording on a tape recorder.
Where modern media has a huge advantage is cost, Just buying a single was more than most young persons pocket money. This meant most young people had to save up to buy one single. Nowadays at 89p most young people get more than that a day.
Also unless you lived in a city or larger town that had a record store you where stuffed. Anyone living in a rural area had no immediate way of getting records or cd's. Ordering online was non existent and nothing was delivered free of charge in fact it cost more to get the item delivered than what it cost to buy.
You also relied on Top of the pops 30 mins once a week to be able to hear a track. There was no instant way to listen to tracks to decide if you want to buy.
I do admit that piracy is a lot easier but also fans have much more available source to access and purchase music at a cheap cost.
I am not even going to comment on the Madonna thing. The facts speak for themselves.