Does File-Sharing Really Hurt the Music Biz?

Phonographic Memory writes "A new study has come out that purports to show a link between file-sharing and decreased CD purchases. Covering the period of 1995-2003, the study looked for a link between owning a computer and decreased CD purchases. The researcher found that 'some US music consumers could have decreased their CD purchases (prior to 2004) by about 13 percent due to Internet file sharing.' In its coverage of the study, Ars Technica notes that the scholarly consensus on the possibility of a link between file sharing and music purchases is missing: 'the dominant impression gained from reading these studies is that finding accurate correlations between file-sharing and loss of revenue for the music industry is tremendously difficult.'"

Comments

Re:Does File-Sharing Really Hurt the Music Biz?

[Jonny do good]

No, I don't want free music, I want quality music for a reasonable price. Like I said, $10,000 to fill a nano, and why shouldn't I get a new iPod regularly, they come out with new and better features. You are an idiot and that is why you will only reply as an anonomous coward! Okay, maybe every year is an exageration, but what happened to the idea that if I own it I can copy it to protect it. I actually have had several friends go through 2-3 iPods in a year for various reasons (ie dropping in a pool, car accidents, etc) and the limits they set have screwed them.

Economics 101

[weierstrass]

Question for you: Magnatune [magnatune.com], who claim that they are "not evil" and do a lot of things right (no DRM, et al) charge about the same as a CD you'd get from a major label, and Magnatune doesn't have the two-tier distribution, or the overhead of traditional record companies (e.g. Magnatune relies on you to produce your own masters; they won't cover the cost of production). Why do you think they charge so much, then? Are they greedy? Do you think it would be more appropriate for them to charge $5 or $2 or even $1, rather than charging what the market will bear?

economies of scale, fuckwit.