THIS is the actual RIAA press release regarding consumer statistics for 1998. Half way down the document, it says, and I cut/paste:
Configuration: Accounting for 74.8% of the total market, full-length CDs were consumed at a greater rate in 1998 than in the past four years.
This, ofcourse is purely demographic information. Demographics are only useful for marketing.
What that article says is that the 14-24 year old range accounts for 4% less of the total 100% of sales than the previous year. This can be interpreted as meaning that 14-24 year olds are buying less music than they used to be, in comparison to other age groups.
Therein lies the beauty of statistics. They say whatever you want them to say, depending on how you look at them.
However, if you look at the PDF of the actual numeric data, HERE , you will see that the total dollar value of the record industry is up 1.5 Billion dollars over 1997, up to 13.7 billion total. (12.2 billion in 1997)
That still doesn't say anything at all about the total number of recordings sold to consumers, but 1.5 billion more in business sure sounds better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, doesn't it? I mean, I wouldn't turn THAT away at the door. Would you?
The RIAA has never been able to produce any evidence that MP3 distribution hurts record sales, other than the simplistic logic that a song downloaded for free is a song not paid for.
On the other hand, as the PDF illustrates (badly, but still readably), record sales have been increasing. They increased rapidly from 1989 to 1996, dropped almost insignifigantly in 1997, and then increased again in 1998. The drop in 1997 was entirely within the margin of error for the statistics, and could be taken as a leveling off of the sales.
If anything, mp3 distribution probably helps record sales, for a number of reasons.
First, quality. According to the standards set out by the MPC folks, yes, the people who put stupid logos on boxes and certified cdrom drives all those years ago, "CD Quality Sound" means "12-bits 22 khz Stereo".
A 128-kbit MP3 is at best, roughly the same quality as a near-by FM radio station. This, for many people who are not taken with the geek value of MP3, is simply not enough.
Second, the sense of artistic value and permanance that comes with an actual distributed media. a CD, with it's packaging and artwork, is something much less likely to disappear, in many peoples minds, than a file on their harddrive. And for some, the artwork on the CD and on the casing and in the insert can give the owner a sense that they own something that gives them some connection to the artist beyond the music alone.
Even if i could download every Twilight Circus album in existance, I would still buy them. I would buy them because I've met Ryan Moore and talked to him, and i think he's a great guy. And I know that he individually numbers all the CD's that ever ship out, stamping them with his own rubber stamp and red ink, and that he often signs them too. From time to time, he even does the artwork by hand, on each and every one of a particular release.
Third, and most importantly, mindshare. People are today buying music they would have never heard of before, because the record companies pick and choose who's albums they will promote and who's albums they will ignore. This probably accounts for the steady decrease in "rock" sales as detailed in the press release.
MP3 distribution is free advertisment for the band. Aside from the top 100 or so artists or bands in the world, most musicians make the bulk of their money off touring, and the sales of merchandise at the shows. For decades, the record industry has given the artists a raw deal on the profits from record sales, with the argument that without distribution channels, nobody would hear of them, and nobody would come to see them play, and nobody would buy anything. The artist no longer needs the distribution channel for advertisment. Only for the actual act of distributing their artistic creation in the form of an album, which is something many musicians will always cherish, regardless of electronic distribution.
Actually, the lemming mentality of most internet auction-goers makes it quite profitable to buy merchandise at wholesale or even retail and resell it on eBay.
Check what a Palm III goes for on buy.com vs. eBay and you'll understand.
You now have to follow a link in order to get to the point where you can link to the homepage, changelog, etc. It's like putting a little glass case over your car stereo so you have to unlock it every time you want to change the station. He's added an extra step where no extra step was needed.
That being said, I realize he doesn't get paid, and i appriciate the fact that there's such a page online. I like the new look, but I don't like having to click on "details" before I can get to a useful link.
I don't think this is a flame, but constructive critisism. I could apply the same critisism to Netscape 4.5, and most of the KDE "enhancements".
So you've got a good product. Fine. So you want to make it prettier. Good. But if the prettier version is less useful, bag it.
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THIS is the actual RIAA press release regarding consumer statistics for 1998. Half way down the document, it says, and I cut/paste:
Configuration: Accounting for 74.8% of the total market, full-length CDs were consumed at a greater rate in 1998 than in the past four years.
This, ofcourse is purely demographic information. Demographics are only useful for marketing.
What that article says is that the 14-24 year old range accounts for 4% less of the total 100% of sales than the previous year. This can be interpreted as meaning that 14-24 year olds are buying less music than they used to be, in comparison to other age groups.
Therein lies the beauty of statistics. They say whatever you want them to say, depending on how you look at them.
However, if you look at the PDF of the actual numeric data, HERE , you will see that the total dollar value of the record industry is up 1.5 Billion dollars over 1997, up to 13.7 billion total. (12.2 billion in 1997)
That still doesn't say anything at all about the total number of recordings sold to consumers, but 1.5 billion more in business sure sounds better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, doesn't it? I mean, I wouldn't turn THAT away at the door. Would you?
The RIAA has never been able to produce any evidence that MP3 distribution hurts record sales, other than the simplistic logic that a song downloaded for free is a song not paid for.
On the other hand, as the PDF illustrates (badly, but still readably), record sales have been increasing. They increased rapidly from 1989 to 1996, dropped almost insignifigantly in 1997, and then increased again in 1998. The drop in 1997 was entirely within the margin of error for the statistics, and could be taken as a leveling off of the sales.
If anything, mp3 distribution probably helps record sales, for a number of reasons.
First, quality. According to the standards set out by the MPC folks, yes, the people who put stupid logos on boxes and certified cdrom drives all those years ago, "CD Quality Sound" means "12-bits 22 khz Stereo".
A 128-kbit MP3 is at best, roughly the same quality as a near-by FM radio station. This, for many people who are not taken with the geek value of MP3, is simply not enough.
Second, the sense of artistic value and permanance that comes with an actual distributed media. a CD, with it's packaging and artwork, is something much less likely to disappear, in many peoples minds, than a file on their harddrive. And for some, the artwork on the CD and on the casing and in the insert can give the owner a sense that they own something that gives them some connection to the artist beyond the music alone.
Even if i could download every Twilight Circus album in existance, I would still buy them. I would buy them because I've met Ryan Moore and talked to him, and i think he's a great guy. And I know that he individually numbers all the CD's that ever ship out, stamping them with his own rubber stamp and red ink, and that he often signs them too. From time to time, he even does the artwork by hand, on each and every one of a particular release.
Third, and most importantly, mindshare. People are today buying music they would have never heard of before, because the record companies pick and choose who's albums they will promote and who's albums they will ignore. This probably accounts for the steady decrease in "rock" sales as detailed in the press release.
MP3 distribution is free advertisment for the band. Aside from the top 100 or so artists or bands in the world, most musicians make the bulk of their money off touring, and the sales of merchandise at the shows. For decades, the record industry has given the artists a raw deal on the profits from record sales, with the argument that without distribution channels, nobody would hear of them, and nobody would come to see them play, and nobody would buy anything. The artist no longer needs the distribution channel for advertisment. Only for the actual act of distributing their artistic creation in the form of an album, which is something many musicians will always cherish, regardless of electronic distribution.
Actually, the lemming mentality of most internet auction-goers makes it quite profitable to buy merchandise at wholesale or even retail and resell it on eBay.
Check what a Palm III goes for on buy.com vs. eBay and you'll understand.
You now have to follow a link in order to get to the point where you can link to the homepage, changelog, etc. It's like putting a little glass case over your car stereo so you have to unlock it every time you want to change the station. He's added an extra step where no extra step was needed.
That being said, I realize he doesn't get paid, and i appriciate the fact that there's such a page online. I like the new look, but I don't like having to click on "details" before I can get to a useful link.
I don't think this is a flame, but constructive critisism. I could apply the same critisism to Netscape 4.5, and most of the KDE "enhancements".
So you've got a good product. Fine. So you want to make it prettier. Good. But if the prettier version is less useful, bag it.