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Impact on traditional retail
There is some uncertainty surrounding whether digital distribution should be considered a positive or negative for the various media industries, however; the rise of digital distribution has upset the traditional business models and resulted in challenges as well as new opportunities for traditional retailers and publishers. Digital distribution affects all of the traditional media markets including music, press and broadcasting. In Britain, the iPlayer which is a software application for streaming television and radio accounts for 5% of all bandwidth used in the United Kingdom.

Music
The move towards digital distribution led to a dip in sales at the start of the decade when CD sales were nearly cut in half (GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL). One main reason that sales took such a big hit was that the pirating of digital music was very accessible. With piracy affecting sales, the music industry realized it needed to change its business model to keep up with the rapidly changing technology(MUSIC INDUSTRY ON THE LINE). The step that was taken to move the music industry into the online space has been successful for several reasons. The development of the MP3 file format allows users to compress music files into a format which does not affect the sound quality while being compressed down to a ~3 Megabyte (Mb) file. In comparison, the same song would require 30-40 Megabytes of storage on a CD(MUSIC INDUSTRY ON THE LINE). The smaller file size makes it much easier to transfer a file across the internet. The main drawback to the mp3 file format was that it provides no protection against would be pirates looking to distribute copies of files illegally over the internet.

Despite the drawbacks that the digital space has caused the music industry, the transition into the online space has allowed for lower expenses such as lower coordination costs, lower distribution costs, as well as the possibility for redistributed total profits(MUSIC INDUSTRY ON THE LINE). These lower costs have allowed up and coming artists to break onto the scene and become recognized. In the past, emerging artists struggled to find a way to market themselves and compete in the various distribution channels. The digital domain has also given artists more control over their music in terms of ownership, rights, creative process, pricing, and more. The internet prevents artists from incurring any distribution costs even into the international scene since the internet allows users from all over the world to access the same material. In addition to providing users with easier access to music, it allows users to pick and choose the songs they wish instead of having to purchase an entire album from which there may only be one or two songs that the buyer enjoys. Now more than ever, more and more customers are choosing to purchase select tracks instead of an entire album. The number of downloaded digital single tracks rose from 160 million in 2004 to 795 million in 2006 which accounted for a revenue boost from $397 million (USD) to $2 billion (USD).

Television
One of the major challenges for traditional television is that almost all network shows are now available online. YouTube and other internet based video services allow users to watch network shows on demand on their computers by using TiVo and other set-top boxes such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation. The integration of internet capabilities into televisions has also given users the ability to access internet content such as YouTube and other video services directly from their television.

Books
Some companies, such as Bookmasters Distribution invested $3.5 million in upgrading its equipment and operating systems in order to keep up with the changes in technology. Companies that are able to adapt and make changes to capitalize on the digital media market have seen sales surge. Vice President of Perseus Distribution stated that since shifting to electronic books (e-books), it saw sales rise by 68%. Independent Publishers Group experience a sales boost of 23% just over the first quarter of 2012. Other companies such as the iconic Canadian music chain Sam the Record Man blamed digital distribution for having to close a number of its traditional retail venues in 2007-08.