You Mean the RIAA isn't Telling the Whole Truth?

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/logo_soundscan_small.gif" />Apparently <a href="http://www.soundscan.com/">Soundscan</a>, the Nielsen tracking firm that looks at actual sales of CDs, is reporting that sales of CDs have actually increased in 2004 over the same period in 2003. This would go against the RIAA's claim that sales are down. So what is the story?<br /><br />Well sales are up. Soundscan reports what is actually sold in stores so their numbers are accurate. During the first quarter of 2003 Soundscan registered 147 million records sold, for the 1st quarter of 2004 Soundscan will report 160 million records sold, a 10% increase. RIAA is reporting that their shipments are down (7.1%) from 2003, not that sales are down. So when the RIAA claims that downloads are hurting their sales, they are not exactly telling the truth. My guess is that when you enter <a href="http://www.towerrecords.com">Tower Records</a>, you no longer are seeing 1,000 copies of <a href="http://www.alanis.com/">Alanis Morissette</a> (yea, figured I'd plug a Canadian) behind the register, just the 10 copies that they sell a day. We hear plenty of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FUD">FUD</a> these days and it appears we now have confirmation of what we all assumed.<br /><br /><b>Not only are sales up in retail stores, they also have the revenue from online sales from iTunes and others.</b> Don't feel sorry for the RIAA (I'm sure you weren't kept up at night worrying about it), they are bigger and stronger then they ever have been and now have the U.S. Congress on their side. It's a good day to be a Compact Disc Salesman!

[ctmagnus]

... Alanis Morissette (http://www.alanis.com/) (yea, figured I'd plug a Canadian) ...


For all you non-Canadians:

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/89/Alanis2.jpg


http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/89/Now%20Is%20The%20Time2.jpg

You missed out on so much!

:mrgreen:

[Jason Dunn]

Hehe...that's hilarious! All this time they're complaining about dropping sales, making us feel guilty about the "collapse" of an industry, and things are going BETTER than they were before? Insane.

[dean_shan]

We knew this all along. The RIAA is the greediest people ever.

[ND Bob]

The numbers I've seen suggest that sales were weaker in 2003 (it seems 2004 is something of a comeback year), but I don't buy for a minute the RIAA's assertion that easy access to MP3s has much to do with it.

Instead, look to the stunning rise of DVD. There might be a dozen CD titles near the check-out aisles at Target or Wal-Mart, but there are usually twice as many DVD titles, at the same price point or even lower. Go back and browse the media selections - you'll find that most CDs of any kind of recent vintage released by "brand name" artists are priced around $12-18; you can find just-released DVDs (many of them with hours of special features) for $10-15.

DVD sales have skyrocketed - it is the first video format that has proven to be truly collectible. And CD sales have taken a direct hit as people browse the media aisles and checkout lanes, making decisions. For many folks, it seems that a $10 DVD is a great impulse buy.

Also, as DVD has saturated the market, prices have dropped accordingly - isn't that what we were always told about the prices of CDs? Yet CD prices are still as high as they ever were, and a lot of folks just plain resent that. It took the dropping price trend in DVD to make Americans realize just how artificially inflated CD prices really are.

Now, I'm not in favor of file trading. As a digital photographer, I'm quite conscious of how easy it is for one's hard work to be snatched up without permission or compensation. If I'm going to download music, I'm glad to fork over a buck for a song I'm hankering after. But even as someone who is not of the "music was meant to be free" mindset, I think it's plain that the RIAA is nuts or worse if they blame their predicament on file trading. DVD (and the music industry's own rotten practices) have gotten them where they are today.