Kyle SGMS used our newssubmit to tell us about an article on Yahoo! News about an upcoming global music sales conference in London where piracy is expected to be a hot topic:
The IFPI recently put a value of $4.2 billion on pirated music activities in 2001. In 2000, the industry was hit by the worst year on record when world sales of recorded music fell five percent to $37 billion.
The misery likely worsened last year and some analysts estimate sales tumbled 10 percent, aggravated by poor sales in the two largest markets, the United States and Japan. But the potential future damage may lie beyond the numbers, industry observers say.
Pirate Generation:
With millions of Internet users downloading all manners of music, from Abba to Eminem, on free rogue services, observers warn that teenagers and twenty-somethings are growing accustomed to seeking pirated versions before venturing into record shops.
"You have an entire generation of people thinking content should be available for free, and that's just not a sustainable long-term business model for the labels," said Hank Forsyth, media analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
A second technological defense has stirred up considerably more controversy: copy-proof CDs. Universal and Sony Music are among the first to try out the new technology with the releases, respectively, of "More Fast & Furious -- Soundtrack," and Celine Dion's "A New Day Has Come."
The new technologies, however, have irked some music fans who complain the security measures prevent them from playing the CDs on PCs, portable devices and even car stereo systems.
If you read the complete article you can read that not everyone is blaming piracy alone. A sagging global economy and the popularity of entertainment alternatives, notably video games, has eaten into music sales too...
Source: Yahoo! News
