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After Brief Respite Music Industry Slump Deepens
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Sales picked up for the record labels late last year, but 2005 has been bleak. The Wall Street Journal ticks off evidence: 'During the crucial Thanksgiving week, for instance, the top 10 albums sold 40% fewer copies than the top 10 albums the same week in 2004. ... Sales of individual digital tracks on services like Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store have increased -- but not nearly enough to offset the slide in CD sales. According to an estimate from SoundScan, overall sales of recorded music are down about 4.5%, if one considers 10 individual tracks the equivalent of an album.' The WSJ also lists familiar reasons for the decline -- 'online piracy, CD burning, high prices and competition for consumer dollars from videogames and DVDs' -- while adding, 'Lately, people in the music industry have said the same basic issues have been intensified by the growing popularity of pricey gadgets like Apple's iPod and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, as well as the rising prices for games that go with the new platform.'"
Wow, there's other reasons than "online piracy" that leads to declined sales of music. Heh, it won't be long until RIAA either demands a halt in the sale of high priced gadgets such as the Ipod and the Xbox360, or demands a portion of the income from the sales. ;)
We got terribly excited by the idea of selecting only a few tracks to put on our iPod. When the excitement died down, we noticed that the music was still shit.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Perhaps they just lost a file with part of the sales listed in it..
I think it was named $sys$Sales.txt or something like that..
This just in...
Music piracy is also down a whopping 69% for the same week in 2004.
Not only are they not able to peddle their overpriced crap on us but now their overpriced crap is so bad that it doesn't even inspire us to steal it from them.
"the top 10 albums sold 40% fewer copies than the top 10 albums the same week in 2004."
This statistic taken alone is meaningless. Depending what's happening along the rest of the curve it can mean that sales have slowed, or it can mean that people are buying a more diverse set of music.
Most of the problems listeners cite IRT the music industry center around labels hyperpromoting a few bands at the expense of thousands of others who get no airplay or in-store marketing. When the top 10 account for a smaller proportion of sales it means that the power curve is flattening a little and people are thinking a bit more for themselves instead of buying what big media tells them to.
And this is bad how?
Kevin Fox