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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."
I read s/Phonographic/Pornographic, time to shut the computer off and go outside, I think.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I thought it was all CDs nowadays, not records.
Now they can stop suing people in Europe.
..but they could have made much more if it wasnt for those pirates eh?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
A) Cracking down on P2P apps is driving sales again
B) Good new music is driving sales
C) The economy is picking up so people are spending money on things like music again
D) P2P apps have exposed people to enough new music and now they are all out buying it
Agile Artisans
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.
... in Edinburgh, local cinema managers are blaming declining attendances on pirate DVD's being sold at local flea markets.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
"It looks like music sales will continue to climb if the customers get something they like."
Free Sex.
Great! Now they have more money to sue people with!
Oh, wait...
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?
Records are back? Eeek!
British Phonographic Industry - everytime I read the word Phonographic, I mistakenly read something else. I think that if BPI wants to maintain good public relations it should, at least, change its name!
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
No, it makes you American.
...and see better record sales. Go figure.
This might just be a better business strategy than suing your customers!
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade body said albums by the likes of Keane and The Streets had helped drive a 3% rise
I'd be impressed if the BPI said that they had a 3% increase due to the sales of new, smaller artists.
But the BPI accounts the 3% rise in sales based on a few large pop acts. Undoubtably there was a reduction for all other artists. This isn't a success - this is a long-term failure in the making.
The average pop act has a very short life. If you bet the bank on one or two hugely successful acts, then you're committing yourself to financial chaos.
It is best to have a large number of stable, repeatable acts with long-term purchases that you can depend on.
This article is just some of what I think should be common business sense shining through:
Forcing customers to do business on your terms (buy the CD @ the producer-price-fixed $18 or break the law) while simultaneously feeding them no talent hacks (most anyway) is just begging for them to "steal" the few decent songs produced. Maybe I'm just messed in the head in thinking that suing your customers because you (the producer) won't listen to what they (the consumer) want is just FUBAR'ed.
Note to the entertainment industry: we computer scientists have jumped into the 21st century by getting through the Y2K bug, I suggest you push your business model to the 21st century as well and reap the benefits be earning my money instead of coercing me. iTunes started it, now embrace it.
PS: I'm not the only one waiting for you to do so.
:wq
I think the mere fact that The Streets sell any copies proves conclusively that the UK music industry is in terminal decline!
I mean, Christ. Some chav who sounds like a 15-year-old schoolyard weed dealer whining about his girlfriend, who just talks on his record, can get to number one? Kids today! Never thought I'd say this, but bring back National Service!
You must think in Russian.
To some people, "record" doesn't just mean vinyl with grooves in. I'm not familiar with British copyright terminology, but at least under U.S. copyright law, a "phonorecord" is a medium in which a sound recording is fixed, roughly corresponding to a "copy" of any other work. Examples of various types of phonorecords, or "records" for short, include Columbia 33.3 RPM LP, RCA 45 RPM single, Lear 8-track cartridge, Compact Cassette, Compact Disc Digital Audio, MiniDisc, MP3 CD-R, and any hard drive containing music files.
Considering how much of the industry has been locked down due to vertical and horizontal integration and oligopolistic market practices it is no suprise that they can sell so much. Just don't believe the lies they tout about how hard their lives are.
I still think that downloading has exciting possibilities for creativity and a line of flight from traditional music channels - especially through the potential of peer2peer networks and so on. But unfortunately there is a real danger of colonisation from the majors who have deep pockets and sharp lawyers.
The Internet offer the possibility of difference and a reterritorialisation of music creativity which is at essence a collective (networked) endeavour. If we allow the major's (few and fewer as they are) to close down this space with DRM and monopolisation of the distribution channels then it will be a very sad day for alternative music.
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
It looks like music sales will continue to climb if the customers get something they like.
I understand the first part of your sentence.. but what's a "customer" and why do they have to like the music we sell?
sincerely,
record company executive
Can't you see?! So much great music has come out in the previous year but there's only been a 3% jump in sales! If you people weren't all dirty rotten smelly pirates, sales would be up 10 fold! The artists would be raking it in and thus could afford to produce more albums! Now, because of you dirty pirates, the artists are going to starve despite sales increases and you'll all suffer.
You people disgust me.
The recent music to come out of the UK hasn't been the usual global tripe.
... White, Welsh comedy rap)
Looking pretty and being able to sing won't sell records anymore, posters maybe but not records.
The fact that bands are back is why sales are up, seeing the guys and gals with the instruments is a good thing, more so when it comes to live performances like V or Glastonbury.
There is still room in the UK for gimic groups, take GLC for example, it put Aberdare on the map! (if you don't know of GLC (or Goldie Looking Chain ) its like a cross between Eminem, Weird Al and Tom Jones
The future is bright, the future is turned up to Whut-ohh!
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
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.
Okay, from what I can gather in the article, all they said is that "sales" went up 3% compared to last year. But did they take into account things like the increase in the number of people in the UK? If there were more people who can afford and want music, then obviously more people will buy music. What about the total production of the music industry? No matter how good a band is most people would only buy one copy of any of their given CDs. It feels like of like the industry saying "look we're selling a whole lot more because we rock" while in reality people are only buying the same amount of music as they did last year. Though the singles download thing is actually pretty cool. Maybe companies would realize that unless they pack shiny things and gimmicks into their singles people aren't willing to shell out the price of half a full album for one song--but they will pay a bit more than A/n (where A is cost of an album and n is how many songs they have) for a song that they like.
read the bunni comic
I read it as "UK Music Industry Sees Record(=ALBUM) Sales".
I was like... so... the music industry sold some records? AMAZING!
Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
A better headline would have been "UK Music Industry Admits to Record Sales".
Anonymous sources indicate that the Porn Industry Association of America (PIAA) intends to file suit against up to 20,000 illegal file swappers, with the British Porn Consortium to follow suit in the coming months. The new wave of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has allowed pornographic material to be shared easily, causing dramatic decreases in pornography sales. The biggest sources of illegal file sharing appear to be college campuses, insecure wireless networks, and people's basements.
Also indicated, C-Net affiliate porn.com.com reports that in order to fend off the consumer backlash, the PIAA has enlisted the help of the celebrities it represents to endorse the legal purchase of pornographic material. In the coming months, superstars Pamela Anderson and Lil' Kim will deliver spots informing consumers of how stealing pornography deprives artists of the income they deserve. Furthermore, filmographer Rick Solomon will deliver spots on how the decrease in revenue stifles his innovation.
Suggested alternatives to illegal porn swapping include the new Apple-supported service iPorn, RealNetworks' secure RealPorn protocol, and Microsoft's Porn Media 9 format featuring 5.1 audio.
It's not a "they" it's a "him." Vangelis O Papathanassiou - I think you can see why he just uses "Vangelis."
Anyone who wants to collect his 'entire' back catalog has their work cut out.
Personally, I love Blade Runner but I think his music sounds too much of the same. If Yanni hadn't happened years later it probably woldn't bother me, but now every time I hear it all I think of is hackneyed cliches like the beach running scene in "Chariots of Fire" or Yanni on stage "jamming" with that soulless "na-na-na-na-na" song.
If you like Vangelis you need to hit Magnatune. They have a lot of electronic artists, many of whom I find much more interesting than Vangelis. Also check out Tangerine Dream (who I also find more interesting than Vangelis).
And of course you must get his collaboration with Yes-man Jon Anderson - not to mention Wakeman's solo stuff - which then leads us to Yes's catalog, Jethro Tull...
I don't know if Canada has had record sales, but they are up over last year according to stats published by the Canadian record industry association. Sales up 7% year to date, profits up 1%.
I think Frontline did a fairly good job of explaining why the US music industry is not making money.
h ows/musi c/view/
(60 min: Real Player & Windows Media)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/s
P2P may be a problem, but is not the primary reason for decreased earnings.
Personally, I think this has a lot to do with new music. The introduction and promotion of new genres usually gives the industry a boost. Unfortunately, corporate ownership and quarterly profits have forced many labels to avoid risky long term investments for unproven music. They opt for safe manufactured pop and wonder why sales are diminishing.
But, anyway, watch the Frontline piece, it's good stuff.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
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
What the recording industry hates is the fact record sales are so fragmented. Sure, more albums are being sold than ever, but it's from a wildly diverse range of artists. With consumers now able to download and listen/sample the music before buying, these monolithic labels are finding it more difficult to manufacture pop artists that can sell 10 million copies. Now they sell half a mill of one artist and 25,000 of another artist... it's more work. The consumer isn't manipulated and decieved as easy.
Why do you think Britney Spears isn't rushing out with a new album? Because sales will be bitterly disapointing. Calculated successes of mindless garbage ala Ricky Martin is less likely now that the consumer has p2p.
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