RIAA releases mid-year snapshot of music industry

The RIAA has posted information on their website about the first six months of this year and the increase of music piracy and the drop of CD sales. According to the industry the file sharing networks are hurting the industry more then ever:

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, CD shipments dropped 7 percent in the first six months of 2002, while seizures of counterfeit CDs soared by 69.9 percent. The first-half decline in CD shipments comes on top of last year's overall 5.3 percent drop.

Together, the findings from both surveys show a continuing fall-off in CD sales'”and in the process decisively debunk the theory that stealing music online is somehow good for the music business.

Based on a May 2002 survey of 860 Internet-connected music consumers age 12 to 54, Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that by a more than a two-to-one margin, consumers who say they are downloading more also say they are purchasing less.

Among people who said their downloading from file-sharing services had increased over the past six months, fully 41 percent reported purchasing less music now than six months ago, compared to only 19 percent who said they were purchasing more music. Even for those who are downloading the same amount, nearly two-to-one are purchasing less music in the past six months -- 25 percent purchased less, 13 percent more and 62 percent purchased the same amount of music. And, for those who are downloading less, 22 percent said they purchased less in the last six months, 23 percent said they purchased more and 55 percent said they purchased the same amount.

The thing in this is, that other researchers, who are not hired by the RIAA are saying the opposite, maybe the truth is somehwere in the middle? Read on here.

Source: RIAA.org

By Guest, Tue 27 Aug 2002 15:41

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Yes, these stupid groups always modify the results to fit their own agenda. Same with liberal groups. They always fudge the facts. So it's sad nowadays that I any news show or article I read must always be recognized as a lie first because of disgusting bias in reports, media, etc. Also, why does the RIAA even exist now? These companies have enough money to support their own legal team. The RIAA was meant for artists who didn't have money powers to defend themselves. Now that they all do (the RIAA will only accept a wealthy client), the RIAA should be disbanded. So if RIAA says piracy is up and sales are down, it really means piracy is at most the same, or lower and sales are up. What liars.

By andyman210, Tue 27 Aug 2002 16:24

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I went to the link and read the article, obviously it has a RIAA slant. After that I decided to check the chart link and that tells a totally different story. In the 6 months ending June 30, 2002.... CD sales down 7.2 % but money value only down 5.1% ...does this mean that they raised prices..and maybe that had an effect on sales ? Vinyl sales up 15.8 % ...hmmm interesting....maybe the RIAA can see a trend here. Sales of CD singles down 81.2 % ..wonder if this was a price gouge + P2P thing. Cassette sales down 24.3 % and cassette singles down 49.1 %..well this was expected...the music industry's fight against cassette piracy looks like it is finally paying off...lol Music Video sales down 57.8 % while DVD sales are UP 59.6 %. The RIAA in all of their ranting and raving did not even mention DVD's and considering the huge jump in their popularity, maybe the RIAA should quit deluding themselves.

By rexroach, Tue 27 Aug 2002 18:31

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the cd single is what it hurt most from file sharing but for a very specific reason. The prictace that the music insestry has of releasing new singles to radio and tv upto t months before you can legitamtly buy them. Kids (who mostly buy singles) want the track now not in 2 months time and one mp3 file is not hard to D/L with even a 56K modem. The plactace of a long prerelease time is what hurts single sales not filesharing

By Guest, Wed 28 Aug 2002 01:27

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Oh, and fon't forget they might be using projected earnings which I think should be dropped. It's where they think they deserve money that they haven't got yet, and when they don't get it, something is wrong. They expect to make a certain amount of money(off a gay RIAA calculator). So if it falls below projected (but still a huge profit), they SAY it's down. Not down below production cost, but below their choice of figures. So it's really up, no matter what they say.

By T4Z, Wed 28 Aug 2002 07:03

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I wonder how much of that percentage loss was from people boycotting them or simply wont buy the CD cuz it's got some protection that disables the person from ripping the music so he can listen to it while jogging (or whatever) on his digital mp3 walkman. I love sony for that one. They make a MP3 walkman and then make protection so that its useless anyway unless you download it from the net thanks to some anonymous cracker who managed to bypass the protection. Did any of this get put into the equation?

By Guest, Wed 28 Aug 2002 09:44

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"The major recording labels released only 2600 albums in 1999." "Napster has signed up 17,000 new artists in the 2nd quarter of 2000." Testimony of Hank Barry Chief Executive Officer Napster, Inc. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee "Only companies can join the RIAA, they do nothing for the independent musician." RIAA website guidelines for membership The RIAA on their website say the cost of CD's haven't risen as much as they could have (http://www.riaa.com/MD-US-7.cfm) Read the settlement statement of the FTC findings against the Big 5 concerning charges that all five companies illegally modified their existing cooperative advertising programs to induce retailers into charging consumers higher prices for CDs (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/05/cdpres.htm) ... puke

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