High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In the first decade of the 21st century, the rise of computers as the primary means to record, distribute, store, and play music caused widespread economic changes in the music industry, fundamentally changing the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry, and consumers. The rise of digital music consumption options contributed to a few fundamental changes in consumption. First the decline of album sales. With the A la carte sales models increasing in popularity, consumers no longer download entire albums but rather choose single songs.