dcwave
12-17-2002, 03:52 PM
Someone emailed this to me
If the Recording Industry Association of America is to be believed, file sharing and P-2-P applications cost them billions of dollars each year because of piracy. Napster, Kazaa and the ilk is the reason why CD sales have show a decline in the past several years, right? These are some of the arguments the RIAA has used to lobby the government for increased strict copyright laws and mandatory DRM technology. Now, what if the decrease in CD sales was mostly the RIAA's doing, and was to be expected?
A Register story (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28588.html) which states the major recording labels have had a 25% dropoff in titles over the last two years. If you release less product to the masses wouldn't you expect to see a drop off in sales? The story suggests that the music industry is holding up pretty darned well since they have only seen a drop of 10.3% in sales with this dramatic decline in releases. George Ziemann did some digging and compiled some numbers (http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html) from RIAA market data and found that the amount per release has dramatically increased over this time.
Like a company who may downsize, actual sales and profits were down over the past two years, while efficiency has improved. Instead of touting the music industry as being leaner and meaner in the past couple of years, profits and sales are down not because of streamlining, it is all because of pirates. I'm not saying file sharing apps have not eaten into sales, they may have, but it seems a bit hypocritical to call on Congress and law enforcement agencies to change laws and partake in piracy raids when the industry may be as strong as ever.
[This message has been edited by dcwave (edited 12-17-2002).]
If the Recording Industry Association of America is to be believed, file sharing and P-2-P applications cost them billions of dollars each year because of piracy. Napster, Kazaa and the ilk is the reason why CD sales have show a decline in the past several years, right? These are some of the arguments the RIAA has used to lobby the government for increased strict copyright laws and mandatory DRM technology. Now, what if the decrease in CD sales was mostly the RIAA's doing, and was to be expected?
A Register story (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28588.html) which states the major recording labels have had a 25% dropoff in titles over the last two years. If you release less product to the masses wouldn't you expect to see a drop off in sales? The story suggests that the music industry is holding up pretty darned well since they have only seen a drop of 10.3% in sales with this dramatic decline in releases. George Ziemann did some digging and compiled some numbers (http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html) from RIAA market data and found that the amount per release has dramatically increased over this time.
Like a company who may downsize, actual sales and profits were down over the past two years, while efficiency has improved. Instead of touting the music industry as being leaner and meaner in the past couple of years, profits and sales are down not because of streamlining, it is all because of pirates. I'm not saying file sharing apps have not eaten into sales, they may have, but it seems a bit hypocritical to call on Congress and law enforcement agencies to change laws and partake in piracy raids when the industry may be as strong as ever.
[This message has been edited by dcwave (edited 12-17-2002).]