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This stands as an important lesson: no matter how loudly anyone screams that the sky is falling, things rarely turn out as anyone expected. Who would have thought that iTunes would come along? Certainly not the RIAA...

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No, the sky is still falling for the music industry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_the_music_industry

"Total revenues for CDs, vinyl, cassettes and digital downloads in the U.S. dropped from a high of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $9 billion in 2008."

I imagine iTunes barely converted anyone who used napster, limewire, etc. back in the day. And now with streaming services like Grooveshark that are far easier than iTunes, the industry has another worry..

My money says it's not from piracy but from falling quality of music sold by the major record labels.

I spend more money on music purchased online now than I ever did on CDs but it's going to independent and foreign artists who produce a much better product.

The numbers should be including all sales.

For everyone of you, there's multiple people who haven't bought recorded music since 2000.

And of course, no one expects the Spanish inquisition.

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