What killed the album were bands putting out album after album, year after year, with one or two songs people liked with the rest being crappy filler. Then they’d put out a greatest hits collection and it would be their biggest seller. Now people can pick their favorites and avoid the dross… where’s the mystery of why that is successful?

Let’s see, I can buy the whole album (CD or exceedingly rare vinyl) for $12.95 to $15.95, for the pleasure of the two or three songs I want, or I can pay .99 for each. Also, a digital copy is much easier to transport, less likely to melt in the sun, get scratched, etc.
Suspect the artists still received their fair share of royalties, regardless of which version I purchase. So the real losers here— and that can be taken many ways– are those in the distribution business, who have had a field day for over 50 years, esp. when it comes to re-releasing “newly mastered” editions, greatest hits, live versions, compilations, etc.
All iTunes did was deliver a great product that consumers want, at an affordable price.
The “record” business is a dying industry, that has been so protectionist of its self interests that it failed to adapt with the times. And sad to say, the artists or music makers generally earn more money from touring and tee shirts than they do from album/cd sales. Plus, for years, the record companies “advanced” them money for their albums, then recovered those advances through sales. There’s less upfront money, but artists are no longer indentured servants.
As Martha Stewart might say, “It’s a good thing.”

Album sales are dying because digital albums are priced too high.
Most albums only have a few good songs (especially Hip-Hop), so why should users buy an album priced higher than the sum of the singles they desire?

Digital albums need to drop to $7.99 to pick up traction. At that price, I’ll be more inclined to buy one and let the songs “grow on me”.

Also, physical CDs are often available for $9.99-$11.99 for popular new releases — for the same or slightly higher price, users can get a higher quality physical copy. The cd can be ripped and re-sold illegally which I’m sure happens all the time.

One more thing: iTunes doesn’t always apply the purchase price of singles to the Complete My Album price. Only is the singles comes directly off the main album but not if you buy a stand alone single released from the same album, which I normally do for the different artwork.

iTunes killed the album sales. Video killed the radio star. Big whoop.

iTunes can only “kill the album” if the albums are full of filler material because the “artist” was too lazy to create an album that was worthy of being purchased as a whole package. Years ago, when I used to buy CDs, I was very annoyed by the fact that the CDs often had 2-3 good songs, and the rest were crap. iTunes has allowed us to buy only what we want. If you want to sell a whole album, then fill that album with quality, and stop being lazy.

Okay, here is the deal. For once, apple created something that actually saves the consumer a TON of money. The music industry before itunes was making a killing by selling “albums” for a lot of money with only 2-3 good songs on them.

Most people buy an “album” just for 2-3 songs they like on it. hmmmm $3 for 3 songs I wanted…. or $10 for 3 songs I wanted and 9 other songs I never wanted…..

The music industry needs to calm down for the fact that they aren’t making 50 more billion than they used to.

What killed the Album, was the ridiculous price!

I remember buying new vinyl at Tower Records, Licorice Pizza, Music Plus, Sam Goodies, etc. for $8.95, “ON SALE”! The prices kept rising, and the ratio of good songs on each album kept falling. New vinyl albums sometime sold for as much as $14.95!

When CD’s were introduced, they were priced higher than vinyl at $12.00 – $16.00, for one or two good songs! Crazy!!

Let’s see: The music publishers killed the single and started charging 16 bucks for albums that used to cost 6 (list price). iTunes brings back the single at about the same (actual retail) price as when it disappeared, but the record companies still want 10 bucks for the album, even though they now have ZERO unit production and shipping costs.

I’m convinced: it’s Apple’s fault.

@eric meek – you left out the best part of music industry math. They complain because they used to make 125 billion in sales (or whatever) and now they only sell 100 billion. But they’re cost structure has so drastically changed that they’ve reduced production costs by 50 billion. They’re ahead but still complaining!

The one missing statistic from the graphic, which is really important, is that the universal release of iTunes came out in October 2003 (Mac and PC). Once Apple opened the door for PC owners, look at what happens to downloads…of both iTunes singles and albums.

Another interesting statistic might be to compare Mac sales after the release of iTunes for PC. That’s how I became a Mac user…I moved from a Dell DJ when Dell discontinued the line to a 5th generation iPod Video, then to iPod Touch, then to iPhone 3G, and then to Mac. The iPod was the “gateway device” to moving to all Mac…in our entire house. I know some people have issues with iTunes…I still think it works better than any solution my PC ever had to deal with large quantities of music (and podcasts, and videos, and games, and now books).

I’d guess I’m not the only one that had that experience–going from PC to iPod to Mac.

Lately, I’ve seen it stated that 70% of college students are going to college this year with a Mac. If that’s the case, Apple’s going to explode in the coming years in ways we cannot imagine.

The best single price is obvious – it was the $2.99-$3.99 that CD singles and cassette singles were sold for.  Music industry execs lost in negotiations to the smarter folks at Apple.  If you apply the $3-4 per song to your graph above you get… isoprofit!!!