[zaphar]

I would bet the drop in album sales is more likely due to the rise of Spotify and other streaming services than piracy.

[ricardobeat]

This. In fact researchers a few years back came to the conclusion that piracy increased sales due to easier discovery + exposure.

[briandear]

It is now, but the drop in record sales started before Spotify — it started with Napster and similar services. Spotify grew from a market reaction to those sales lost due to theft.

[EADGBE]

CD sales have fallen since 2000. Spotify, in your example, came out 8 years later.

https://www.statista.com/chart/12950/cd-sales-in-the-us/

Conversely, Napster was released in 1999.

[artwr]

Illegal downloads surely had an impact in the 2000s era, but I think by now the amount of freely streamable content is by far the largest factor.

[intended]

Unlikely - streaming expanded the market for music.

I recall a report that showed that p2p networks acted primarily like a broadcast medium, which tuned to the most popular works.

The entire free content model has arisen because of tacit acknowledgement of that fact.

Youtube, hell everyone, applies those lessons today.

[EADGBE]

And, as I pointed out originally, there was about an 8 year gap between demise of album sales and the prominence of streaming.