Slashdot Mirror
The Downward Spiral of Music Retailing
chundo writes "Business Week has an article about the financial problems plagueing specialty music retailers. Tower Records, Musicland, and Sam Goody are all "hemorrhaging money", despite efforts to move sales online. Some chains are trying to adapt - Virgin Megastore is testing an in-store service to download songs to portable players, and their Radio Free Virgin unit hopes to break into digital music retailing. Is the failure of conventional music sales reinforcement that the RIAA's business plan just doesn't work, or will it just provide them with more ammunition against the P2P crowd?"
It's fairly obvious to me that the falling sales are both proof that the business model is failing (due to a change in the market environment) and that it will also provide ammunition for the RIAA's anti-P2P argument.
The RIAA is, I believe, misunderstanding the situation in that they would lose sales regardless, but the reality of any situation rarely intrudes on the legalities.
When the price of a new CD went to $20 I simply stopped buying. I have no downloaded MP3s and no copied CDs. I've simply curtailed my music purchasing due to what I see as exorbitant pricing. Period. And until prices come down I will not purchase another CD. I am who the music industry is loasing as a customer, and they just don't get it.
Yes, except the opposition Jefferson was talking about here wasn't really evil, they just held different views from Jefferson and his political party. He's talking about the Federalist party, which had a bunch of really smart guys in it, like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington (though those two stayed out of partisan politics,) John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. All the best though.