Apple Holding Back the Music Business?

conq writes "With average weekly download as of Nov. 27 sales down 0.44% vs. the third quart, BusinessWeek speculates that Apple might in fact be holding back the music industry." From the article: "As has been true since the start, iPod owners mostly fill up their players from their own CD collections or swipe tunes from file-sharing sites. Now legal downloads may be losing their luster. According to Nielsen SoundScan, average weekly download sales as of Nov. 27 fell 0.44% vs. the third quarter. Says independent media analyst Richard Greenfield: 'We're not seeing the kind of dramatic growth we should given the surge in sales of iPods and other MP3 players.'"

Comments

Re:Silly

[Khomar]

Seriously, it's right before Christmas, as the article points out. Nobody's going nuts buying music because they're spending all their money on presents and other holiday [stuff]

You hit an important point here. Music sales are down (slightly) this quarter, but what will happen in the next quarter? I can see a lot of iPods being purchased for Christmas presents for kids, friends, etc. Most parents probably don't know what songs to buy for their kids, so why not wait until they get the gift, go on-line with them, and order songs from iTunes (and others). As you pointed out, people are spending money on other things, but when all of these new gifts arrive, people are going to be looking for music to fill them with.

If first quarter 2006 comes and goes with a decline in music downloads, then they can talk. I predict (no, I am not a prophet so don't stone me if I am wrong!) that the music industry will find their "big" quarter has moved from the historical norm -- not pre-Christmas but post.