What are some of the major causes to the decline in music sales today? There are a multitude of things to explore. Is it the poor quality of music? Could piracy be the leading cause? One things for sure, something different is going on being that record sales for this past week just hit an all-time low. I'm sure there are people who think they know exactly why the sales are the way they are today, hell I might be one of them. One thing I know for sure is that I'm very worried about today's sales.                  So I hear a lot people out there thinking that it's the quality of today's music. Mainly you would hear this from people about 45 years old or older. Me personally, I've always hated that way of thinking because everyone and I mean everyone always think their era of music is the best music ever made. So the sales being down or not doesn’t matter because they would come up with that same conclusion, their era was the best. Let me take that "everyone thinks their era is the best," statement back if I may. I don’t necessarily think that way, I explore a lot of music from the past and I can definitely see why the older generation would think the music from their time was the best. Even if that was the case, it still shouldn't affect music sales because I don’t think most kids to young adults are listening to music from their parents childhood. So bottom line I think this argument is ridiculous.                    One of biggest issues of this time in technology is piracy or at least I think so. Piracy doesn't just stop with the music industry. The movie industry as well is having big issues with piracy or bootlegging is what most call it. With piracy better as prevalent as it is today, I don’t think one could deny that it has had a direct impact on the music industry and has for years.           I think we all know someone who specializes in bootlegging or who is known for that, think about how many people have access to a $15 CD for just $5. We can't expect everyone to make noble decisions. That being said, I'm not going to lie and say I've never purchased a bootleg CD, but what I will say is I've never felt right about it. Being a big fan of music and one who creates music always made me feel really bad because I wouldn’t want my product bootlegged. If a person who feels bad would buy bootlegs, just imagine all the purchases from people who couldn't care less. Now it's even easier to download music online, you could simply download off of YouTube. To think that piracy isn't the cause for low record sales is just being blind to the facts.         Maybe kids today aren't that interested in music as my generation and generation before was. Just think about all the other things they can do now. Computers and gaming systems are significantly more advanced now than 15 years ago. I've always used music to get me through a bad day, along with writing music, which was and still is very therapeutic for me. A lot of young teens today would probably rather shoot people up in Call of Duty or play RPG games on their computer. Not sure how much this has affect on music sales, but it does make sense to explore.               Music sales declining could be simply a lack of record stores. Think about all the record stores that you would drive by or walk by in your youth, if you're my age. I had a record store a couple of blocks from where I grew up that would sale records before the actual release date, which made me even more excited about that record coming out. Yeah I know what you're thinking, there's no need for record stores when we can download the content in our own homes, true.        When I was a teen going to the mall, I wouldn’t have the intention to go buy a record, but walking by one seeing a promo for a CD in the window sucked me into the record store. While being online you would still have to search for the music. I'm not saying I think this is the cause of declining sales, just think it makes sense to explore.              Who truly know why the music biz is declining, but as a die hard music lover and someone who would love to be in the industry. This is issue has me very worried about the future