WHY CD SALES ARE PLUMMETING: The music industry blames piracy, but other factors — from the ability to just buy the songs you like, and not a CD full of filler, to competition from other things like games and the Internet, to the fact that releases tend to suck more than they used to — seem more significant.

It occurs to me that the media sectors that are doing badly — movies, music, newspapers, TV women’s shows — seem to be the most highly politicized, while the sectors that are doing well, like games, aren’t. I’d be interested to see more analysis on that subject.

UPDATE: On newspapers: “Newspapers are powerful. Or were. Many of the big guys — the LA Times, NY Times and the old Knight-Ridder newspapers — put people in charge who could not handle the power. That the real problem here.” That probably applies across the board, actually.