As the crucial period pre-Christmas period for music sales comes to a close we’re starting to already see more doom and gloom reports which will ultimately be blamed on peer-2-peer sites and so on.  However these statistics wont be examined within the context of the wider economy – such as a general economic down turn and consumer confidence post credit crunch.   The figures that Digital Music released today also point out the number of albums that have gone platinum compared to last year as another indicator.  However such indicators need good as many good albums being released each year, and I’d say that this year just isn’t the case.

A final factor in all of this is market competition and prices in relation to inflation.  This Christmas not a day goes by without being offered some sort of discount by the likes of HMV, Bang CD and CD Wow, and the prices are the same or cheaper than last year – which means in real terms prices have dropped by 2-3%.