10 months into 2014 and still not a single artist’s album has gone platinum. Not one artist has managed to cross that million sales mark. Surprised? Not particularly.

By this time last year, five different albums had hit one million units sold or more. In fact, album sales this year are so bad that you have to look all the way down to number four on the list of best-sellers to even find something that was released in 2014. Comparatively digital sales are sliding as well, 60 songs have sold one million (or more) copies, something not unusual in a world where loving a single no longer means having to purchase an entire album.

In an industry that is now favouring the online, people are completely shifting to digital sources  and subscribing to streaming services. Alongside music streaming, we have been very happy to see the sales of vinyl records enjoying strong growth, setting a new record in 2014. In fact, the laptop I’m writing this article on doesn’t have a CD drive built into it so there’s not even a choice there.

With a shift in user behaviour comes a fresh opportunity for the entertainment companies to remodel and make the most of the environment. Google already has its own music streaming service (Play Music All Access) and it appears Apple is planning a slow and smooth transition from its old iTunes model to a new Beats-powered approach. Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and now Amazon Prime are all competing for user dollars in this new world of on-demand music.

So should we be worried? The answer is no. The industry has changed, plain and simple, whilst less albums are being sold there are less albums are being made with a shift towards 3-5 track EP’s. But what about the artists? Never fear, our favourite artists aren’t missing out completely. These days the money is made through ticket sales from touring and shows, with albums and new releases becoming more so for promotional purposes than the profit makers.  Keeping that in mind, maybe one should start a label and a streaming service combo where the artist actually get paid their fair share?