The effect of the record industry's decline on the local community

The record industry's old model collapsing impacts TCU students and Fort Worth residents in several ways. Due to the sharp decline in record sales and profits record labels are reticent to sign and develop new talent which is obviously detrimental to local musicians. However, musicians are not the only ones feeling the effects of falling album sales; local music retailers are suffering and in many cases barely staying afloat. Both major chains and mom and pop stores are having a hard time selling music in a format (CDs)that is quickly becoming irrelevant to our generation. In some cases stores are forced to close their doors which affects college students who work at these stores. There is another issue that correlates with the industry's decline that hits close to home with college students, piracy. The collapse of the record industry's collapse is tied directly to piracy, and a large portion of the music pirated is pirated by college students. If the record industry does not find some way to fight this then it is only a matter of time before the coming of the end.