Changing Music Industry

The music industry has changed drastically within the last 20 years and continues to develop at an incredibly fast pace due to the creation of new media technology and Web 2.0. 

The jif above (please click to see) is one I found online which essentially sums up the change the music industry is going through from gradual change to cassette to CD then rapidly to digital. Music producers have to keep up with the advancements in technology and in the case of Apple and Itunes often drive the change aiming for vertical integration. 
The growth of digital music has also led to the contentious issue of illegal downloading and piracy which is much easy and is one of the main problems facing the 'big four' companies resulting in many of them making losses. To combat this Sony has for example developed Music Unlimited and Universal Music Group has co-developed Vevo which both show how they are trying to adapt to the rapidly changing industry.