Free Republic

Last year was terrible for the recorded-music majors. The next few years are likely to be even worse. IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,”...

In an indication of what the Wall Street Journal calls a "seismic shift" in the way people now acquire music, CD sales for Q1 2007 are 20% below what they were last year. Digital song sales, which were expected to salvage the industry, have risen 54% in 2007 from last year to 173.4 million, but that is not nearly enough to compensate for the 20% drop in CD sales to 81.5 million units. Overall music sales, both digital and physical, are down 10% this year. Adding insult to injury, one billion songs a month are traded on pirate networks....

One Music Label or Several? Pearl Jam Weighs Options  Brian Babineau/bpbphotography.com Pearl Jam, seen here performing earlier this month in Mansfield, Mass., sells recordings of each of its concerts on the Internet.   By CHRIS NELSON ARTICLE TOOLS                                 TIMES NEWS TRACKER Topics Alerts Pearl Jam Music Recordings (Audio) Copyrights     or the musician who wants to get CD's into stores around the world, the best approach has long been assumed to be signing a contract with an international giant like Sony Music. These...