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2003 CD Sales Officially Down 7.6 Percent

Posted by simoniker on from the cee-you dept.

Lust writes "CNN is reporting that global CD sales for 2003 are down 7.6 percent, and points to 'rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs.' More grist for the RIAA mill on P2P? I just haven't heard anything new I'd like to buy... how about you?" It's also mentioned that "a strong second-half recovery in the United States, Britain and Australia... has raised hopes that the worst is behind the beleaguered industry", although "evidence of a full-fledged recovery is flimsy."

4 of 792 comments (clear)

  1. Re:7.6% is one number but there are many reasons by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, RIAA contracts mean that any time a CD under one of their labels is sold, it is either subject to their payment scheme, or is illegal.

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    Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  2. RIAA free top 100 by vossman77 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm a big indie rock fan and I find this site to be a good break down of non-RIAA bands:

    RIAA Safe Top 100

    RIAA Safe Top 10 Alternative Rock

    all based on Amazon Sales

  3. Re:Fall of CD sales doesn't mean less music sold by 3terrabyte · · Score: 4, Informative
    250 million dollars is only 0.0078 % of 32 billion dollars.

    Come on, we're suppose to be NERDS. Do the math. Quit pointing to iTunes as some sort of real cash flow to the RIAA. It's not. Either is the $3000 dollars they make from lawsuit settlements.

    We forget how filthy rich this monopoly is. 32 billion dollars is a lot of money. Feel sorry for media companies now? Are we ripping off the artists? Hell no, the music industry has been ripping off artists MUCH longer than we've been alive!

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  4. Study Says File-Sharing Has No Impact On Sales by crashnbur · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, almost no impact. According to a new study, "downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero". Monday's NYTimes (free registration) describes the study, in which two economists analyzed file-sharing and sales data over a 17-week period in 2002, using "complex mathematical formulas" to determine that "spikes in downloading had almost no discernible effect on sales", and estimating that "it would take 5000 downloads to reduce the sales of an album by one copy". Naturally, some organizations disagree. Also, according to the RIAA's 2003 year end numbers [PDF], sales of CD singles were up 84% from 2002, while overall revenue shrunk from $11.55 to $11.05 billion... which makes perfect sense when you consider economic tendencies since 9/11.