Ever since the threat of Napster’s peer-to-peer downloading drove music executives to decide if they were going to adapt or die (they chose option c: Crap their pants and stick their head in the ground), experts have been looking for a place to blame the industry’s rapidly declining sales.

While the graph below is not new, the way it is presented is. Using the language of the Internet, Digital Music News condensed 40 years of industry sales data into a digestible 40-second GIF (below) which illustrates the evolution of buying trends int he music industry.

Of course, it doesn’t take into account the years of over-charging by greedy, near sighted major labels, but the proof is implied in the pudding.

By the time we get to present day, CDs are a fraction of their heyday peak and what were five major labels are now condensed to a single powerhouse and two struggling also-rans.

But don’t just take our word for it:

Story from here