Recently the BPI has reported a sales drop of 32% on albums and 59% drop on singles since 2002. However, the actual quantity of albums sold has remained the same year after year over the past three years and the quantity of CD singles has fallen 30% each year. With Albums, it appears that falling CD prices and file sharing actually have insignificant effect on the quantity of albums sold. Recent falling prices however mean less overall sales since the overall quantity sold remained roughly the same.
As most music downloader's and buyers are after individual songs rather than full albums, this may partly explain single sales drop. Another reason for falling single sales is that they are priced like the less popular old 12" vinyl 'maxi' single where as the cheaper 45 vinyl singles have disappeared along with the changeover to CDs. Since then, single sales have continued to fall regardless of how many were using file sharing networks. Finally with album prices falling, one gets much better value for money when buying an album than to buying individual singles.
Even before the time of file sharing networks piracy and the ability to sample music has always been around in some fashion. The radio is one example where one can listen away to the latest hits without paying a cent to the music industry. Most children who could not afford records got their music by taping their favourite hits off the radio or from vinyl. In recent years, the only difference is that taping has been replaced with downloading and taping from vinyl has been replaced with CD copying. The older music lovers who are working generally do not mind purchasing albums since they can afford them and it saves time trying to fetch the music online. Finally a large CD
rack of CD-R's looks ugly in the living room. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news via our news submit :
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In a survey of 3667 members of the public aged between 12 and 74, 17.8 per cent said they had downloaded music. Of those, 92 per cent - 600 people - admitted to using illegal file-sharing sites. On the basis of this figure, and an assumed 48.78 million members of the music buying public, the BPI reckons some eight million Brits are stealing songs via illegal file-shares. And they're buying fewer records, the BPI says. Among music downloaders, album spending was last year was down 32 per cent on 2002, and spending singles was down 59 per cent. By contrast, UK album shipments have remained broadly flat over the past three years at around 232 million units, while the volume of single purchases has dropped 30 per cent year-on-year.
'Shipments' and 'spending' are not the same thing. The BPI admits that album prices fell last year. "Latest figures show that almost half of all CD albums now retail for under £10," the BPI notes, down from around £13, in our experience. So if the number of CDs sold remains the same - at around 232 million a year - of course the public is spending less. By around 23 per cent, according to those pricing figures. So if they had bought the same number of albums in 2003 as they had in 2002, downloaders' spending would typically have dipped by around 23 per cent in any case. The fact it has fallen beyond that is a matter for concern, but the revenue lost to downloading - if it is indeed due to downloading - isn't as much as the BPI would have us think. Read the full rather long story here. |
It appears after all that the only reason for album sales falling across many countries is due to falling CD prices and even though the actual quantity sold has either remained unchanged or has even increased. With the RIAA being forced to lower its album prices, it is not surprising that they are now complaining about the overall sales total has fell since last year and suing its potential customers.
Source: The Register
