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.

[Big Bunyip]

...a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry, a trade group said Monday. Nah, that's not the reason, just maybe a small part of it.

The real factor at work here, in this deaf ol' rocker's humble opinion, is that most of us have replaced our old vinyl and cassette versions of favorite albums. Used to be I'd enter HMV or Virgin to buy a new disc and notice that the labels had reissued some old favorite on CD. So I'd buy it, and maybe a few more besides. Now that I've got a fat collection of CDs, enough to keep my Denon busy pretty much all the time without repeating an album, the boredom factor is minimized and Sam Goody isn't getting anywhere near as much dough as he used to.

[cmsgop]

I just bought the "Starland Vocal Band"

Afternoon delight Afternoon delight!

[cmsgop]

Ping!

[LibKill]

I just bought the "Starland Vocal Band"

Afternoon delight Afternoon delight!

"There is no accounting for taste," the man said, whilst kissing a pig. :)

[Jorge]

I'm going back through all my many hundreds of CDs and making playlists of my favorite songs. They're really enjoyable and their new compilation context gives them a whole different sound.

Exactly. Being able to arrange my favorite cuts in the order I choose, has revived my interest in music.
I got tired of putting on CD's for one or two singles I like, and having to hit the stop button to avoid the crap I didn't like. I got so I rarely listened to them.
But now that I can burn CDs I listen to music more than I ever have.

[goldstategop]

Its their overpriced CD's no one wants to buy that's the primary reason the music industry's sales are declining. File-sharing isn't the cause of their plight but the result of it. When RIAA and the music label giants start listening to consumers then the industry will rebound. Somehow I think they'll go broke and for us consumers its no great loss. Even John Ashcroft can't force people to buy their CDs.

[Constitution Day]

Don't make me break out "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".

[cmsgop]

OK, OK I sorry!!!!!!!!!!

[tippytoes]

I went to the music store the other day and priced CD's. Try $17.99. Egad! The bottom line about low sales is the pitiful excuse for music the companies are pumping out. There are so few good singers left and the lyrics of songs now are absolute crap. My 20 year old son prefers the classic rock, R&B, and the standards sung by Sinatra and Dean Martin. The music industry is a wasteland compared to those artists from our past.

[cmsgop]

Cats and the Cradle and The Silverspoon

running!!!!

[SW6906]

Let's see, do you think poor artist music quality and A RECESSION might have something to do with declining sales?!!? What morons.

Rather than embrace new technology and figure a way to work it to your advantage, they continue with their obsession to stop the unstoppable......

[Constitution Day]

That song is PARTICULARLY annoying, isn't it?

[zarf]

THIS IS THE MAIN REASON: $16.99 per CD!!!!????

[SW6906]

Hey pardner! How ya been? Did you make it to the meeting this last Saturday? I couldn't make it.....

[SW6906]

That's the night the lights went out in Georgia....

That's the night they killed an innocent man.....

[cmsgop]

Nah, I needed to rest a bit. Sounds like it was a good time though. Hope you and the Fam are well...:*)

[cmsgop]

I HATE THAT SONG YOU BASTAGE!!!!!!!!!! Not Nice at all..:*)

[MarkL]

Of course, this wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that there just isn't that much new music that's worth buying, or even listening to!

I know that years ago, I'd buy at least one or two albums a week... I was thinking about it lately, and I don't think that I've bought more than 3 new CDs this year, although I've been buying a number of older albums on CD that have been out of print for years (Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillo, Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water... Yup, a big Yes fan!)

The reason that the record industry hasn't been making money off me is simply that IMHO, much of the new music out today really sucks. On the other hand, the bargain bins to have some good stuff! I recently found some great used jazz and blues.

Mark

[RobbyS]

The stuff is over priced. DVDs have dropped to the level of VHS because that is what the market demands. No artist should get any more for an album than a writer gets for a book

[SamAdams76]

I too have been burning my CDs into compilations (and mixing in some MP3s for good measure). I own nearly 1,000 CDs that I bought from 1985-2000. Over the last two years, I have bought relatively few new CDs. One reason is because of the RIAA "war" against file-sharing. But the other reason is that having been burning my own CDs, I now realize just how much I was getting ripped off. Consider this. I can buy a stack of 100 blank CDs for about $30. That's about 30 cents per CD! And that's retail. I would reckon that the record companies pay a lot less because they pay wholesale and in bulk lots. Probably more like a dime for a blank CD. Now these record companies have been lying to us all these years, making us think that these "state-of-the-art" CDs were so expensive that they had to charge us $15-20 per CD just to eke out a profit.