It seems that now music retailers are starting to point fingers at the RIAA for the recent decline in CD sales. According to a recent editorial posted in the New York Times, some retailers feel that a major factor in the recent sales decrease over the past few years has been the industry itself, and how it chose what music to market to the public, and how it was sold.

One of the main points in the article is the decline in the industry's focus on artists that could sell an album. Instead, with the boy band craze and female idols like Britney Spears, the focus was placed on singles, which in turn led people to download the hit single, as the full albums were not enticing. The idea of a single was always to sell an album, but instead, the industry has done the exact opposite. Marketing a song or two from an album full of filler material. To add to the problems, the price of CD's was raised drastically to the point where most consumers would rather download the single illegally or through one of the many pay download sites. Thus almost eliminating the CD single concept, and lowering overall CD sales.