Rise & fall of music formats show ‘the process of creative destruction’

As the multi-year resurgence in vinyl proved, and Taylor Swift’s recent download flash sale reaffirmed, old music formats seldom really die. But their trajectory does reveal what James English calls “the process of creative destruction.”

This video, created by Eagle using RIAA data, tracks sales of different music formats in the U.S. over the last 50 years.

“They show the process of creative destruction,” he writes. “(music formats) show the shift from analog to digital. They even demonstrate the move from physical to intangible.”

Below the video, we’ve also posted a similar 2018 graphic from The Visual Capitalist that inspired Eagle which tracked similar data. It’s amazing how much changed in just four years.

From 2018

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.