Internet Distribution of Music

In the years prior to the nineties, music was constrained to the accustomed selling via regular retail outlets. During the late 90s, however getting music from internet assumed a total certainty. With the help of Napster website service, a digital music file sharing phenomena was evolved. Thus this initiated a new era in music distribution. The enormity of online media file sharing services, despite the legal suspension of Napster's service in 2001 showed that the music industry has failed to quickly adjust to the internet as the new profit maximizing distribution point. The music industry was still charging high prices and limited listening to the computer only, via streaming or downloads that couldn’t be burned to CDs. However, in 2003, Apple changed the whole scenario by initiating their major online music store where they sold songs for just $1 each and permitted users to burn songs to CDs. Many other companies followed Apple's approach and started similar strategies. One thing that is of interest is what new strategy the music distributors will use in the coming 2010s. This mystery can only be solved in the coming years.