tyfach points us to an interesting article over at Guardian Unlimited. If you've followed the news lately you will know that according to the music industry, the internet is destroying profits and artist will soon be out of a job.
The article continues with what many of our visitors have said all along: people who are downloading free music often wouldn't have bought the album anyway. However, people who are music fanatics actually buy more CDs as a result of frequently downloading than they otherwise would have done:
During the past few days we have learned that online music sales have slumped by 25% in the third quarter of 2002 compared with a year earlier. We already know that total US retail music sales have dropped by 7%: Forrester Research told us this week that one in seven Europeans downloads music and that more than 40% of frequent downloaders confess to buying less music as a result. |
Faced with an industry in freefall, what should one do? One option would be to have a look at the facts about how it affects Britain. But first, a question. By how much do you think record sales fell in Britain last year - by 20%, 10% or 5%?
The answer is none of these. Sales of albums (accounting for 90% of total sales) actually went up last year. Figures to be released shortly by BPI, the trade monitoring body, are expected to show a rise of almost 3%. Not bad for a year in which the quality of records was reckoned to be poorer than usual and when internet downloading was supposed to have reached frenzied levels.
The article continues with what is basically a perfect conclusion of what we and our visitors have said for quite some time now:
If the music industry spent as much time and energy in enriching the buying experience as it does chasing freeloaders, then it might find that the problem starts to solve itself. Most people are quite prepared to spend money on albums as long as they feel they are getting value for money. |
But a lot of potential buyers feel they are being ripped off by a handful of record companies that are trying to dominate the globe. Record companies should bridge the gap between free rip-offs at one end, and over-expensive CDs at the other end, by reducing prices and paying more attention to the motives of customers.
Perfectly said in my opinion. Please read the complete article here.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
