Report: CD Sales Further Decline

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | 8/26/02 | Simon Avery

[GeneD]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Compact disc music sales decreased 7 percent during the first half of the year, a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry, a trade group said Monday.

The decline cost the industry $284 million in lost sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

The decline, measured by PricewaterhouseCoopers, compares with a 5.3 percent drop in CD shipments in the first half of 2001. The RIAA said the industry uses just-in-time delivery, so CD shipments are reliably indicative of actual sales.

Also Monday, the RIAA released a separate survey of Internet users' music habits, which found that most consumers between the ages of 12 and 54 bought fewer CDs as they downloaded more tracks.

Previous studies independent of the music industry have suggested that access to free music on the Web actually encourages consumers to experiment with new acts and buy more CDs.

"We find a striking connection between people who say they are downloading more and buying less," said Geoff Garin, the pollster for Peter D. Hart Research Associates, who conducted the random telephone survey of 860 consumers for the RIAA in May. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Of consumers polled whose downloading increased during the last six months, 41 percent reported buying less music, compared with 19 percent who said they were purchasing more, he said.

Among those polled who said they were downloading the same amount as six months earlier, 25 percent said they purchased less music, compared with 13 percent who bought more, Garin said.

The survey also reported that 35 percent said they go straight to an Internet file sharing site whenever they hear an unfamiliar artist they like. Only 10 percent reported that they immediately buy the artist's album.

The poll did not provide information about consumer attitudes on other factors widely considered to be affecting CD sales, including the quality of new releases and the lack of easy-to-use online services from the major recording labels.

"I very strongly conclude that the ability to get music for free is an important factor and has an adverse effect on music purchasing. I would not argue that it is the one and only factor," Garin said.

[Brookhaven]

playing music from the 70's, 80's, and early 90's.

There have been several "retro" music movements (big band, early rock) amoung teens lately. The only explination is that the current music aimed at the youth market stinks, and a lot of youth are looking for something better.

Plus, I don't know any baby-boomers that listen to the current releases. They have either gone over to country-rock, or listen to oldies rock. Heck, there are probably more oldies rock stations (cocentrating on the '70s and '80s with some '60s and 90s thrown in) in my town than their are stations playing the latest releases.

Other reasons:

CDs are too expensive. Period.

People are worried about the economy. When people count pennies, the first thing they stop buying are overprice luxaries like music CDs.

[martin gibson]

Robert Johnson, Son House, Django Reinhardt ... Nothing even remotely in their league is being released today.

Amen, brother Ben.

[dogbyte12]

This story is patently biased and false. In 1999 and 2000, the hay day of Napster, CD sales were up. People were sampling tracks online, then buying the album. Napster gets shut down, and CD sales go down. Why is that theory any less logical then this one? Napster dies and after it dies it gets blamed for this. Hillary Rosen and the RIAA need to get an award for having the biggest brass pair in the world.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

You best come home in my kitchen, 'cuz it's gonna be rainin' outdoors.

[grania]

Compact disc music sales decreased 7 percent during the first half of the year, a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry, a trade group said Monday.

It should read...a further indication that the music is so bad nobody cares enough about it to invest in the lyrics, artwork, and liner notes, as it has no long term value.

[Publius6961]

I used to buy CDs all the tme.
Haven't bought any since they started promoting the copy "protection" "copy once" and other BS.

I never copied CDs for "sharing" in my life either.

[MSgt Smith]

The classic rock channel on dish network satellite TV plays what I want to hear no commercials no DJ just music. I can digitally record any of it I want to keep on hand. Why would I go out and buy a CD

[Illbay]

Most--not all, but most--of the songs we dislike are due to overplay on the radio.

If I hear Stairway to Heaven one more time, I'll scream.

But I didn't listen to radio much when I was a young adult (when "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" came out), and I always liked Gordon Lightfoot, so that one doesn't get to me.

[Illbay]

Now Playing: The Clash "Combat Rock". It really never got any better than that.

[steve-b]

Compact disc music sales decreased 7 percent during the first half of the year, a further indication that online music sharing sites a crappy economy and a crappy product are hurting the recording industry

[Lynn]

$14.99??? where are you buying your cd's at....at that price I need to get em by the boxload...I can't find the for under 16 where i'm at

[steve-b]

More fundamentally, I've just been too busy working on my old cassette tapes to clean them up and convert them to MP3s before they disintegrate -- I've hardly had time to listen to new material (what there is in the way of new material worth listening to).

[bvw]

Most repeatitious dittos!

By taking even the "charity" of the corners of the fields, and the droppings of the harvesters as owned crop -- by killing off the online music swappers -- the Music Biz has killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.

And gooseflesh only lasts a day.

[freebilly]

Now Playing: The Clash "Combat Rock". It really never got any better than that.

Broke the mold!

[bvw]

The music sucks because of the overwhelming greed that captures all marketing and distributtion channels so that only recast dreck can be legally sold.

[Lynn]

Ahh....the logical explanation has surfaced...with overplayed pop non-singing icon-ettes such as the britney you refer to (whose voice is mostly sampled and distoreted to have a certain effect to account for her inability to sing) lead the charts, followed closely behind by the grwonup boy band n-stync, and those men still running around with that name backstreet BOYS, well then....there you have it....the state of pop music today...

and how many bands like creed, pearl jam, nickelback and athose others that all sound the same do you need to buy before you've heard it all...

and even maria "meltdown" carey....well if she hadn't decided to start acting black in everything she does...or even acting like she tried...well she might produce another ear-piercing wale or two that might keep someone from falling asleep from her next album


But wait...maybe it IS those racist boys over at Sony for not properly handling that last album from michael "pedophile" jackson...

oh well, if all else fails blame it on the economy which doesn't afford young kids the money to go out and buy as much crap nowadays...I for one am fine with that...

[Illbay]

The answer to this conundrum, at least right now, is RHAPSODY.

[Protagoras]

How's this: Stop charging $14.99 for a f****ing CD and then maybe people will start buying them.

Are you saying it is OK to steal things if the price is higher than someone is willing to pay?

[Protagoras]

I'm sure the recording industry will be able to bribe enough lawmakers to pass laws forcing everyone to buy their products.

Really? A law saying everyone must go out and buy a product? WOW.

[bvw]

I see you stole someone else's name. Send a Royalty each time you post to Sally Henning's great-great-great grandkids, will you please.