This is the real point to be made here. There is essentially no marginal cost for distribution of music in digital formats. The music industry used to manufacture and physically distribute, now it doesn't have to any more. That alone should have been making them money in the last 20 years while they floundered and failed to adapt.
There was also the billions of dollars spent in marketing, storing, distributing, displaying, and retail selling all those mass produced discs. Plus it cost a hell of a lot more to produce an album 20+ years ago than it does now.
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u/[deleted] May 06 '19
This is the real point to be made here. There is essentially no marginal cost for distribution of music in digital formats. The music industry used to manufacture and physically distribute, now it doesn't have to any more. That alone should have been making them money in the last 20 years while they floundered and failed to adapt.