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From piracy to vinyl, JU Divison of Music Chair Tommy Harrison discusses evolving music industry in Times-Union article

JU Division of Music Chair Tommy Harrison

CDs are on the way out and vinyl is making a comeback?

My, how things change in the music industry.

Jacksonville University Division of Music Chair Tommy Harrison discussed the music industry’s fluidity in a March 1 Florida Times-Union article titled “Vinyl, subscription services may be the salvation of the music industry.” The article was prompted by a new report that shows that music sales rose in 2012 — a surprise to some people because the proliferation of music piracy in the digital age led to a dramatic decrease in U.S. music sales between 1999 and 2011.

Harrison, also a JU professor of commercial music, music business and recording, said in the T-U article that piracy is being offset by the emergence of online subscriber music services such as Spotify and Pandora.

“I think piracy is going to end up declining because, if you have it on Spotify and you’re paying $10 a month anyway, you don’t need to pirate stuff that you can get streamed to you,” Harrison said in the T-U article.

Harrison also explained in the T-U article why CD sales are slipping while vinyl sales are increasing.

“If people want really good quality stuff, they’re going to buy vinyl, and if they don’t care if it’s good quality they’re just going to run around with an MP3,” he said.

Here’s the entire T-U article.