At the risk of becoming the Straight's resident music-industry doomsayer, I point you in the direction of this article from CBC Arts: "Digital downloads can't reverse steep decline in music sales".

Here's a key quote from the story: "There were just 20 million songs downloaded legally in Canada in 2006, compared with 1.3 billion illegal downloads, according to research from Pollara, a market research firm. Illegal internet file-swapping and counterfeit CDs and DVDs are more common in Canada than the U.S. because of relatively lax laws and enforcement against piracy, CRIA said. In the U.S., where copyright laws are stronger and there has been more enforcement, legal downloads represent 17 per cent of recording sales. In Canada, legal downloads account for six per cent of the market."

The end is nigh, friends. The end is nigh.

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