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UK Music Industry Sees Record Sales
ardmhacha writes "Despite the claims of gloom and doom from the BPI (the UK equivalent of the RIAA) the BBC is reporting that 'UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade body said albums by the likes of Keane and The Streets had helped drive a 3% rise compared with last year. It also said sales of single tracks were up thanks to the availability of legal download services.' It looks like music sales will continue to climb if the customers get something they like. The article also discusses adding music downloads to the charts."
BPI began suing filesharers RIAA-style in October 2003, and this year the market rebounds. This isn't necessarily a testimony to the harmlessness of P2P; it could be a testimony to the effectiveness of containment and harassment.
Well I for one am definately buying more albums as a result of exploring new (to me) music on P2P networks. I'd never heard of Vanglis before P2P came along, now I own his entire back catalog. Surely, I'm not the only one like this?
I don't understand why the price of a single track is 99p and albums are > £10!
They don't made into CDs with packaging.
They don't need to transported around the world/country in various forms of transport.
They don't need to be stocked in a store which employs loads of people.
Why, with practically 0 distribution chain, is the price still about the same as CD?
When they come down to 25p then I'll start buying this way. Well, so long as there's no DRM.
Auto-check your UK lottery lines
If you look at the article, you'll notice a link to a related audio story in the top right corner, that talks about how the UK is bucking music industry trends. In other words, how the UK industry's growth is the exception rather than the norm.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Doubtful. I would venture to guess that a lot of people who pirate music wouldn't pay for it anyway. I buy 99% of the songs I listen to. The occasional song I "steal" is a song I never would have paid for anyway.
The BPI recently obtained (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3743596. stm) a court order compelling ISPs to name subscribers (identified by IP) who were accused of file-sharing. Anyone know of any developments since then?
I don't think it counts as karma whoring when you lose karma...
Moderation +4
80% Funny
20% Overrated
I seem to recal an artical where the Australian Record Industry has been breaking sales recoreds for the past few years. I don't think that its all that strange, though the UK may be doing better then most, no ones really hurting. Except my ears, so much music sucks.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Has no one noticed that, for the most part, the people who are hardcore downloading music (or movies, or games, or software, or...), and not using it as an "evaluation" to see if they want to purchase a real copy, are generally broke anyway? The IP industries are not "losing" these customers to downloading, if not for downloading, these people would simply be unable to purchase a copy either. Net loss to IP company, therefore, is near 0, if not a net gain through free advertising to people who have the money and are just previewing.
The premise, to me, that these broke students, if downloads were not available, would begin printing money or something in order to purchase music or other IP seems a bit flawed to me. Somehow, it seems more to me like they would borrow and trade CD's among friends.
The premise that downloading is theft also seems a bit flawed to me. I have seen this equated as stealing a car off a lot, and this seems a flawed analogy to me, there is not still a copy of the car left on the lot.
A more appropriate analogy seems to me that a friend of mine needs to use a car at various times. He is not really interested in having a second car, as he would only use it sporadically, but really has no other choice as his wife normally takes their car to work. This is about to make Ford money, until I come along and offer to allow him to borrow my car when he needs to.
I find it hard to swallow that, in the above scenario, I "stole" from Ford by keeping someone to have to purchase one of their products. I didn't do this by stealing something off a lot, but by sharing something I already have. This, to me, does not indict the sharer for theft, but rather the seller for greed.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Not just CD sales:
e ws/2004/08/24/ntunes24.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/24 /ixhome.html
"The BPI also reported that vinyl sales, while still small, continued to rise, with a 60 per cent increase in three months."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/n
How so? How does buying a used CD drive original sales?
iTunes gave me a chance to sample so many songs outside my usual categories. I have spent more money this past year off iTunes than the past 5 years buying CDs.
I have downloaded so many unmarketed non-MTV songs, it's crazy. Even more amazing, I have not purchased a single full-album off iTunes. 100% of my purchases are single tracks from here and there.