Online recommendations for Music Industry

The music industry might be suffering at the retail level, but that isn't the case online. An AOL service, AIM Tunes, is allowing users to listen in on buddies tunes. iLike, a music recommendation site is bring in over 13 million users since its launch in October 2006. These new programs could have a positive influence in increasing retail sales amongst various artists in the music industry.

"Clearly, radio is losing its influence," says Phil Leigh, an analyst at Inside Digital Media. "This is replacing it as a way to discover new music, because we tend to appreciate what our friends appreciate. If a friend recommends something, we'll pay more attention." Finding alternative ways to influence the music community is brilliant. Social media is huge at this point in time and taking advantage of viral marketing through this channel could change the view of this negative relationship with previewing buddies tunes online and illegal downloading.