The RIAA has posted information on their website about the first six months of this year and the increase of music piracy and the drop of CD sales. According to the industry the file sharing networks are hurting the industry more then ever:
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, CD shipments dropped 7 percent in the first six months of 2002, while seizures of counterfeit CDs soared by 69.9 percent. The first-half decline in CD shipments comes on top of last year's overall 5.3 percent drop. |
Together, the findings from both surveys show a continuing fall-off in CD sales'”and in the process decisively debunk the theory that stealing music online is somehow good for the music business.
Based on a May 2002 survey of 860 Internet-connected music consumers age 12 to 54, Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that by a more than a two-to-one margin, consumers who say they are downloading more also say they are purchasing less.
Among people who said their downloading from file-sharing services had increased over the past six months, fully 41 percent reported purchasing less music now than six months ago, compared to only 19 percent who said they were purchasing more music. Even for those who are downloading the same amount, nearly two-to-one are purchasing less music in the past six months -- 25 percent purchased less, 13 percent more and 62 percent purchased the same amount of music. And, for those who are downloading less, 22 percent said they purchased less in the last six months, 23 percent said they purchased more and 55 percent said they purchased the same amount.
The thing in this is, that other researchers, who are not hired by the RIAA are saying the opposite, maybe the truth is somehwere in the middle? Read on here.
Source: RIAA.org
