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Music Industry Thriving In an Era of File Sharing

Posted by kdawson on from the told-you-so dept.

levicivita notes ZeroPaid coverage of a recent study by the UK music industry's own economist showing that overall UK music industry revenues were up in 2008 (study, PDF). The study is titled "Adding up the Music Industry for 2008" and it was authored by Will Page, who is the Chief Economist at PRS for Music, a UK-based royalty collecting group for music writers, composers, and publishers. From ZeroPaid: "[T]he music industry is growing increasingly diverse as music fans enjoy a wide range of platforms to hear and consume music. Sales of recorded music fell 6% for example, digital was up 50% while physical dropped 10%, but concert ticket sales grew by 13%. In terms of what consumers spent on music as a whole last year, this surprisingly grew by 3%."

12 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Long story short... by KneelBeforeZod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The money flow is going the way it should. More about the artists and less about the publishers. And at better prices. To gain recognition, artists aren't required to sign away all their rights to a giant publisher anymore.

  2. Where the profit goes. by Repossessed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ticket sale money doesn't line the same pockets as CD sale money (for one, the artist gets a cut).

    --
    Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
  3. AGAIN? by PerZon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From what I remember, the same increase was seen throughout the industry when Napster was at its peak.

    The industry should be thankful for being able to reach a larger audience without having to pay the giant advertising costs!

  4. To hear the accountants tell it by symbolset · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An album hasn't turned a profit in twenty years. Otherwise they would have to pay royalties to the artists, which would ruin their business model.

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    Help stamp out iliturcy.
    1. Re:To hear the accountants tell it by Hammer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now would that be the same people who raised the price when the CD came "to pay off the investment"?
      When independent economists calculated the price of a CD, on the shelf in the store, being ~10 cents less than the LP. That included paying off investment in 5 years...
      Or is it the people who said that the prices would drop as soon as the market grew?
      I am still waiting for the CD market to take off so the prices will drop ;-)
      Or are we talking the guys who manage to set the price of a soundtrack CD higher than the movie DVD?

  5. The Money is going into the wrong pockets by defireman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The RIAA et al. is screaming about piracy not because money is not lining into pockets. The money is only being lined into the wrong pockets, and they don't like it.

    Executives only exists to protect themselves. The facts don't lie.

  6. File-sharing has dropped in the UK by bonch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like how both the article and the Slashdot submission completely ignore that file-sharing has dropped in the UK, especially among teens. Though I know this was posted on Slashdot to give pro-pirates the idea that sales are thriving in spite of piracy, this story doesn't disprove the effect piracy has on sales--if anything, it bolsters the idea that sales go up when piracy goes down.

    1. Re:File-sharing has dropped in the UK by sortius_nod · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know about that one.

      You're ignoring that there are better content delivery systems these days. Years ago you almost NEEDED to pirate if you wanted a digital copy (especially if you weren't a techie), these days you can buy from many online stores, DRMed or DRM free.

      I'd say you're putting the cart before the horse. Piracy has dropped because there's more choice for legal avenues. It's not that pirates have been busted therefore buy more legit downloads.

    2. Re:File-sharing has dropped in the UK by selven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Slashdot (or at least the segment you are referring to) is not trying to increase piracy, it's trying to reduce copyright, and one of the desired reductions is to make personal file sharing legal. If the artists are doing fine without the draconian laws some people are proposing then it supports the (Slashdot-approved) idea that we do not need those laws.

    3. Re:File-sharing has dropped in the UK by Andy_R · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The RIAA labels are well aware that file sharing is free advertising and it increases sales, the reason they are against it is that it breaks the monopoly on exposure that the RIAA labels had. Being able to try before you buy via P2P allows people to discover great self-promoted and small label music without making expensive 'stab in the dark' purchases. This means that although file-sharers spend on music is higher, the amount that ends up in the pockets of the RIAA labels is lower.

      --
      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  7. Re:What's the Cause? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My guess is that the kids just got smarter. You don't brag about filesharing anymore. No matter how much a study is allegedly "anonymous".

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Re:What's the Cause? by Draek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So you're saying that, when illegal file-sharing dropped, so did actual sales?

    --
    No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.