Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Digital Music Sales Skyrocket in 2005

Posted by Zonk on from the year-of-the-ipod dept.

Luke PiWalker writes "The market for digital music hit $1.1 billion in 2005, more than triple 2004 sales. But the industry, wanting to wring the maximum profit out of the consumer, remains fixated on piracy." From the article: "The IFPI also called on ISPs to join the fight against music piracy, which it claims severely erodes the profits of its 1,450 member record companies across the globe. The IFPI added that the legitimate music business was gradually gaining ground on digital piracy. It said research showed that in Europe's two biggest digital markets -- Britain and Germany -- more music fans are now legally downloading music than illegally file-swapping."

10 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. RIAA has won by digitaldc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now can they please stop suing their consumer base?

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:RIAA has won by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is a lot like the war on terra. They won't have successfully "won" until there isn't a single person out there making a copy of a song for someone else without paying. In short, it will never end...

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    2. Re:RIAA has won by surefooted1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      RIAA has won
      Or have they?

      ...research showed that in Europe's two biggest digital markets -- Britain and Germany -- more music fans are now legally downloading music than illegally file-swapping.

      I think people have just found more "secure" ways of trading music.

    3. Re:RIAA has won by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is the difference between a discrminating music buyer and someone who buys the top 40 hit of the week. One buys music because they like the music. The other buys the music because it's cool and that's what they're supposed to do.

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    4. Re:RIAA has won by mzipay · · Score: 4, Insightful

      C'mon! It's not that black-and-white!

      The reality is that most people who have a CD collection own both kinds of works - those that they listen to regularly, from the first song to the last, and those that they listen to only on occasion, or only to certain tracks.

      Here's a newsflash - musical taste is SUBJECTIVE. What you consider to be the greatest musical masterpiece of humankind's existence might not be worth picking up from the 25-cent bargain bin at the local swap shop to someone else.

      The "argument" here (going back to the original post) is quite valid: if I like a particular song or couple songs off some band or artist's album, and I *don't* like (or don't care one way or another) about the rest, I don't want to pay FULL price for the whole album.

      Personally, I only buy new CDs for my absolute favorite bands and artists. For the rest, I first look at local CD exchange stores, followed by online used copies, and finally resorting to "piracy" if all other options have been exhausted.

      That song that got released back in 1972 that I just heard the other day in a TV commercial and would really like to add to my collection? Um, yeah, I'm NOT going to go out and pay for the entire album when all I want is that song. If I can find the album on the cheap (and by cheap I mean $1 or less), I'll buy it.

      Otherwise, it's a pirate's life for me. ARRRRRR!

  2. Legal downloads bigger than piracy? by nordelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How are they measuring piracy? How can they possibly get reliable figures on the level of music piracy.
    Not that I am necessarily complaining. If the industry is content to consider that online piracy is not as big as legal downloads perhaps they will leave online music alone and look at people who actually make money from piracy (e.g. sales of counterfit CDs/DVDs)?

    --
    -- "You never mentioned comets before, Mac. This opens up a whole new area of negotiation." - Gordon Urquart
  3. Digital Music? by Compenguin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aren't CD's also digital music, not just that downloaded crap?

  4. Legitimate Markets by warmgun · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "It said research showed that in Europe's two biggest digital markets -- Britain and Germany -- more music fans are now legally downloading music than illegally file-swapping."

    This seems to have little to do with any anti-piracy efforts from the record labels and much more to do with the wide-spread availability of legal markets for digital music for the first time.

  5. It's quality and convenience! by ami-in-hamburg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Personally, I think increased online sales would have to do with the quality and convenience. I don't have any idea how many times I downloaded some song, then when you play it back, it's something completely different than what you expected because some bonehead mislabeled it.

    I don't know what bit rate you can get from legal online services but I also got really tired of the crappy 128bit rate that it seems like everyone ripped to. I recently just finished re-ripping every CD I own to 256bit and I can tell the difference. I would think you won't get all the background garbage noise in a legal download either. At least I would hope there are no (pop, crackle, fizz) in the legal downloads.

    Convenience is a huge factor too. I fully understand that one person's fav band is another's most hated. However, I got sick of buying CDs because the group had a couple of tunes on the radio that I thought were really good only to get home and find out the other 8-10 tracks on the CD are crap! The ability to buy single tracks, at least to me, has value.

  6. Stop pulling rank... by john-da-luthrun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't see why the fact you're "an IP lawyer" should have anything to do with what side you're on. So am I, as it happens. So, for that matter, is Eben Moglen, and I don't seek him rushing to support the RIAA any time soon.

    This isn't about people being paid money they deserve - I don't have any problem with the record industry charging for their products, and I don't (generally) make (many) illegal copies of music or have any great sympathy for those caught putting 000s of tracks on file-sharing services

    The point is that though that the music industry is turning file-sharing and "piracy" into a scapegoat and using this to at best inconvenience, at worst rip-off their legitimate customers (or even compromise their computer systems - can you say, "rootkit"?). Copy-protected CDs, restrictive licensing/DRMing of music downloads (so that people moving from the US to Europe lose all their iTunes downloads, for example). Twenty years ago if you changed your hifi you didn't have to repurchase your entire record collection. Now? Oops, please tell me you didn't switch from an iPod to another make of "MP3" player? And whaddya mean you bought a copy-protected CD and now you want to listen it on your iPod? Go buy a downloaded version as well, you thief!

    The fact is that what makes money for the record companies is good music that people want to buy. It's the failure to find any really bankable, long-term, good quality acts that is the real problem for the record industry, but they prefer to make examples of a few "pirates" rather than address those deeper-rooted problems.

    This story only goes to underline this - find the right product, the right price and the right delivery mechanism, and people really do prefer to buy the legitimate goods rather than going for illegal copies.