Hacker News Reader

It was a fairly severe recession (that partly led to Reagan's election). To other comments, it was well past the gas crisis, cassette taping had been around for ages, and CDs were just coming in (which, if anything, led to people replacing worn vinyl with new digital media). So I'm mostly going with recession.

Recession yes, though it was at the end of that period when Volcker moved to quash inflation.

CDs didn't arrive in large numbers until the mid 80s.

No but interviews mention Quincy Jones saying that he made Thriller to "save the music industry". Ambition aside, it seemed to be a serious issue.. yet I can't recall why ? post disco fad counterwave ?

Home record/radio dubbing?

It's right about when the "Home Taping Is Killing Music" campaign came about.

Also, it might be more useful to consider if the CD era was an outlier. Also, I don't know if the start date is of any significance.

When did FM radio take off? Maybe that's a connection?

Gas crisis?

More difficult to go to the store?

Also, 8-track tapes?

Total speculation.