It's the size of the U.S. market that has attracted new entries into the music market, and the size of those retailers, i.e., Wal Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., has really brought the prices of CD's down. These high volume sellers, along with internet shopping, have really put the squeeze on traditional record stores. They have had to be innovative about carrying more than just music and at competitive prices.
The article that sites Brits as being the biggest buyers of music per capita bodes well, for consumers, for the long-term, as big retailers may want a bigger piece of that growing pie, and you could have the same result as we have had in the U.S. The other side to this story is the download revolution, which also put pressure on CD prices.
All of this helps the consumer, hurts the record stores and musicians. The record industry exec's have not taken a cut in pay...the musicians make less instead.
I used to love going into record stores and finding obscure U2 stuff. Today it's all on the Net. Also, I bought HTDAAB at Wal Mart and Circuit City. Prices vary widely in the U.S., as Circuit City has the regular CD for $10.99, while Sam Goody has it "on sale" for $15.99. Also, the Collector's edition was $44.99 at Sam Goody, while it was at Wal Mart for $26.99.
That's why I think U2 could have played a big role in saving the music industry by legitamizing the download business. CD sales will continue to be under pressure, IMO, but the huge retailers control the market, so it's the little guy that will be gone in 10 years. The download industry is still in it's infancy and still largely file sharing. When it stabilizes, the price of music in the U.S. will be lower still, but the cost of selling music will be, too. A massive business model transformation is underway, and unfortunately, it's the musicians who will suffer most during this time. U2 won't be affected, but there won't be another U2 as Bono said.