Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, the Backstreet Boys and a few other lucky superstars dominated the charts in the 80s and 90s, raking in big money for the music industry . However, times have changed. CDs are obsolete and music piracy is driving the industry out of business. The music industry has never managed to adapt to these changes and is paying for its blindness with a loss of revenue of more than $8 billion. So, given the advent of iPods, digital downloads and the age of YouTube, the question arises: how should major music companies go about choosing the next big thing, when the cost of a mistake could condemn them to bankruptcy? The music industry is working hard to cope with these changes. As John Kennedy, President and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), explains, “the global music industry continues to fight on, investing in talent and developing new business models despite challenges problems of a market rigged by piracy. investing more than US$5 billion annually in artist development and marketing, licensing hundreds of services and adapting their distribution channels to meet changing consumer demands. Unfortunately, despite their diligence, the music companies' $5 billion investment doesn't appear to have made much of a difference in the state of the industry. The trend in music sales over the past decade is best illustrated by the following graph: As shown above, the unfortunate state of the music industry is best illustrated by the fact that total revenue from music sales Music and licensing in the United States plunged from US$14.6 billion in 1999 to US$6.3 billion in 2009 (Goldman), despite the fact that the US population actually increased. duri...... middle of article ......Asch, Solomon E. "Opinions and Social Pressure." Scientific America 193 (1955): 31-35. Shamir, Lior. for the music industry." Song Contest Blog. We Are Listening Ltd., June 12, 2009. Web. April 25, 2011. .Berg, Tom. "Mission Viejo Woman Wins Record Contract Contest at the Super Bowl - Orange County Register." Orange County Register Communications Featured Articles, February 3, 2008. Web. April 26, 2011. .Linstone, Harold A. and Murray Turoff. "The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications - Harold A. Linstone and Murray Turoff (Eds.) - 1975." NJIT: information systems. January 1, 2002. Web. April 17. 2011. .