Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

There’s was an AP story from last week about the continued erosion of CD sales, and the further ascendance of digital sales. Looked at in terms of the story from a few months ago where a music executive told a London business audience that the “CD as we now know it is dead,” I’d have to agree with him. Of course, numbers and trends like these have implications for the “print is dead” debate, most notably in the fact that the kids who are now eschewing records for downloads will one day also eschew print books for digital books.

From the story: “About 588.2 million albums were sold in 2006 — a 4.9 percent decline from 2005, according to year-end sales figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. But digital sales increased by 65 percent over the previous year, with 582 million tracks sold, and digital album sales more than doubled, with nearly 33 million sold.”
AP: Sales of albums plunge, but digital downloads soar