So far the music industry thinks the only proper way to prop up sales is by eliminating free illegitimate sources, adding copy protection measures to media and so on. Well, the Live 8 concert has really shown the way to boost sales by giving their gusts (and others) what they really want - Enjoyable music.
Apart from one artist, pretty much all the other artists that took part seen their music sales rocket. Ping Floyd's "Best of" album sales rose a massive 1,343%, followed by "The Who - Then and Now" with a 863% sales rise and "Annie Lennox - Eurythmics Greatest Hits" with a 500% sales rise. Another 7 artists saw album sales hikes of between 200% and 412% following the concerts.
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But most remarkable of all was the phenomenal increase in album sales of the acts that appeared '“ apart from basket case Pete Docherty, whose old band actually saw sales drop. UK music retailer HMV reports that newly-reunited Pink Floyd's 'Best of' album was flying off the shelves with sales up an astonishing 1,343% and veteran rockers The Who, or at least the half still living, were rewarded with a more modest leap in sales of 863%. While a sales boost following such a high profile event was only to be expected, one forum member was taken aback and asked a very relevant question: "This can't be right! Everyone knows that piracy is killing the music industry. Surely no one actually bought any music after the concerts. Are you sure those numbers aren't percentages of money lost due to MP3 downloads via illegal P2P services?" Those sales volumes for Live 8 acts in full: 1 Pink Floyd - Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd - 1343% The full Inquirer article can be read here. |
This really goes to show that the Music Industry's lawsuit campaign, label's use of copy protections and so on is really becoming a wast of time, money and resources. They would be better instead trying to encourage and help artists perform more concerts since if consumers really likes the artists, they chances are that will buy their albums.
Source: The Inquirer
