According to the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA), the wholesale recorded music sales in 2004 decreased by 4% in volume and 6% in value compared with the previous year. While they put the usual blame on increased piracy due to a much increased broadband usage, they did also admit that competing entertainment products such as games and DVDs have also affected their sales.
However, one major factor the ARIA failed to mention is the significant drop in the number of new releases in 2004 compared with 2003. According to a music industry commentator and a University of Technology study, the four major record companies released 4,480 titles consisting of albums, singles and DVDs in 2003, however this value fell to 2,906 in 2004, a drop of 35%. When each medium group is broken down, this represents a 42% drop for singles, 39% drop for albums and a mere 2% increase for DVD titles.
With a smaller selection of new releases to choose from, this likely caused some consumers to go for competing products as well as go online to find an alternative slection, which includes downloading music from legitimate and unauthorised sources. According to the study, the Australian recording companies also invest less in getting new artists and many existing artists are being rid of. On the other hand, the number of independent record company releases sharply rose from 616 albums in 2003 to 1,219 albums in 2004, an increase of 98%. Independent Single and DVD releases also sharply rose by 88% and 100% respectively. brantdk used our news submit to let us know about the following news quote:
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It is a similar story told by other music trade organizations, such as the BPI or RIAA. However, what the ARIA's analysis fails to include, according to published music industry commentator and Sydney University of Technology student Alex Malik, is the ARIA released 1,574 fewer albums, singles and DVDs in 2004 compared to 2003. In 2004, the major music labels released 2906 albums, singles and DVDs - in 2003, the major music labels released 4480 albums, singles and DVDs. This represents a staggering 35% decline in only 12 months. Read the full article and press release here. |
From what I see, if the number of new releases fell by 35% while overall music sales only fell 4%, then assuming the sales of existing releases remain unaffected the average number of copies sold per new release had actually risen.
Using the assumption that existing release sales remain
unaffected between 2003 and 2004, we can work out the approximate increase in
sales per new release. So if new releases fell by 35%, then the following
calculation gives the average percentage increase of sales per album in 2004
over 2003 if the overall sales remained the same: 1 é· (1 - 0.35) = ~1.538 or a 53.8% increase. Now take into account the 4% overall sales drop: 1.538 é— 0.96= 1.476, thus giving an approximate increase of 48% sales increase per title released in 2004 compared with 2003. :p
So much for blaming piracy and file sharing for artists
not making as many sales. Then again, if the number of new releases went
up and same went with overall sales, then the music industry's likely announcement would be their anti-piracy efforts finally taking affect. I wonder how well the average release sold for the other continents. Feel free to discuss and find out more about file sharing and its legal issues on our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.
Source: Slyck News
