The Year in Preview

With sales soft and the domestic retail sector struggling, major record corporations are likely to release fewer albums in 1998 and to focus their resources and energy on marketing each project. The industry must put out better music and find more efficient ways to promote it directly to young consumers. Corporations also face a dramatic challenge in trying to expand the $39-billion global business in such potentially lucrative markets as Latin America and Southeast Asia, where piracy runs rampant.