In the music and movie industry of the United States, the exploration of productivity exhibits significant fluctuations because it has increased and declined over time. Specifically, revenues from the music and movie industry increased exponentially from $2 billion in 1973 to $14.6 billion in 2000, and they dropped to $6.7 billion in 2015 before rising again to $11.1 billion in 2019 (Recording Industry Association of America, 2020).
In the aspect of CD and DVD formats, sales increased and eventually decreased owing to changes in productivity. According to RAAA, revenues from CD and DVD industry grew from $17.2 million in 1983 to a peak of $13.4 billion in 2000, then decreased to $614 million in 2019 (Recording Industry Association of America, 2020). The productivity trend reveals that the production of CDs and DVDs in the music and movie industry has decreased by more than 95% in the past 20 years.
The variation in trends over time reflects the changes in the productivity levels owing to technological disruption and changes in consumer preferences. The emergence of high-speed internet has prompted the digitization of music and movies and subsequently caused a decline in the use of physical formats, such as CDs and DVDs. According to Waldfogel (2017), digitization disrupted the music and movie industry by reducing the cost of production and increasing the ease of distributing products to customers.
Moreover, the digital era has transformed consumer preferences for music and movies. Consumers have shifted their preferences from physical products of CD and DVD to digital products, which are flexible and versatile since their consumption entails online streaming and downloads. The common digital products are on-demand streaming, paid subscriptions, and downloads offered by Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Home Box Office, and Pandora.
References
Recording Industry Association of America. (2020). The United States sales database. Web.
Waldfogel, J. (2017). How digitization has created a golden age of music, movies, books, and television. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(3), 195-214. Web.