Comments on: Global Digital Music Sales Up 40 Percent, But Overall Sales Down 10 Percent

By: Music in in Transition — Biterati

Music in in Transition — Biterati — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:49:13 +0000

[...] Legal digital music downloads increased by 40 percent in 2007, but the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates there are 20 illegal downloads for every song that that is legally purchased. Piracy uses torrent and peer to peer services. Source: Techcrunch - January 2008 [...]

By: Catshanghai » Untitled

Catshanghai » Untitled — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:42:31 +0000

By: ungabunga

ungabunga — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:28:06 +0000

Ho hum, I see they are still singing the same old song. Blaming piracy for the downturn in music sales! For once I would like to see these schmucks own up and blame artists for producing endless stream of horse manure. It is simple math, Crappy music = No sale!

By: Netmark

Netmark — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:04:57 +0000

People thought i am an idiot when I still buy albums!

By: ZOMGPWN!

ZOMGPWN! — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:46:56 +0000

@17 | agree. lol.

By: rubu

rubu — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:55:27 +0000

The whole ‘you can’t compete with free’ lie/meme got decimated by Radiohead.
If someone likes iTunes or Rhapsody then they should use that service, but ignore the RIAA, MPAA and IFPI, et. al.

By: CanCar

CanCar — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:54:47 +0000

This market is increasing, as well as increases the amount of Internet users. Better is than we are prepared to make front and to be able to cover the users necessities.

By: John

John — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:33:15 +0000

Someone should address the fact that you can search for a band on myspace or hype machine (or pandora etc) and often listen to a selection of music legally at any time. Some people will be interested and buy, some will choose to steal and others will just choose to listen to the plethora of free content online. Too many people and studies assume that music sales should stay the same or go up because of more, better, easier digital distribution. This is not the case. Just look at all the new content available online, including video, audio and text. All this content is competing for people with the same money and time as last year.

By: Granddaddy500

Granddaddy500 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:11:31 +0000

Why are we assuming that the article has no validity? Do we not trust the way the data is generated?

By: John John

John John — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:48:09 +0000

“What bit did I not understand?”

the difference is ” sundry expenses” for the big 4’s executives….

By: LostAudio

LostAudio — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:39:24 +0000

Global Digital Music Sales Up 40 Percent……

But Overall Sales Down 10 Percent…
The sale of digital music globally hit $2.9 billion in 2007, up 40 percent from 2006. But, as we’ve seen in the U.S. alone, that was not enough to offset the 10 percent decline in overall music sales to 17.6 b…

By: Phil McThomas

Phil McThomas — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:30:50 +0000

The first slide implies:

====================================
2006: $2.1B is 11% => Total Revenue is $19.1B

2007: $2.9B is 15% => Total Revenue is $19.3B
====================================

But the accompanying text says overall revenue is $17.6B.

What bit did I not understand?

By: ZOMGPWN!

ZOMGPWN! — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Agreed, JJ. I think the important thing now is to make sure that the traditional models of having a label system inbetween music fans and artists, siphoning off $ justified by production, PR/Marketing and tour support expenses get smashed up like Homer Simpson wailing on a weather station. Even though 0-+> looked silly with ’slave’ written on his face @ Letterman, he had a great point even back then. That old system propagates ‘art as commodity’ over ‘art as discovery’ and we need to get more money directly into the pockets of the artists who say.. don’t want to move to L.A. or NYC because they like their hometowns and are happy staying there.. or the ones who simply don’t fit inside that homogenized machine, yet can still connect fiercely with a fanbase. It’s bubbling up now, but it has to boil over. Here’s to turning up the heat on the big four. *kicks Yorick’s skull into the gutter*

By: Diego

Diego — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:15:14 +0000

Who cares about revenue anyway? The industry cares about profit. If revenue is down, but costs are too, then we don’t know what effect that had on profit. And I imagine that distributing music over the Internet is a lot cheaper than doing so using physical supports. Therefore costs should sink and these statistics don’t really tell us if the music industry really does have something to complain about or not.

By: John John

John John — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:07:52 +0000

Well we’re on the cusp of a new paradigm for music. As sales of music as a tangible object decline, we are seeing the rise of of the music rental/subscription paradigm of the future (eg Last.fm). In a couple of years all our players will be internet connected and for a small monthly fee (which will go to the artist) will we have access to every track ever recorded.

I for one, can’t wait.

By: Brian Ford

Brian Ford — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:21:13 +0000

It seems like “digital music” is not the best choice of words for the IFPI report to use — CDs are digital music, too. “Online music sales” would probably be a more accurate description.

By: ZOMGPWN!

ZOMGPWN! — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:57:48 +0000

There are so many outright lies and half truths in there. They ‘conclude’ that there is ‘better choice’ at ‘legal’ services over p2p by comparing Limewire to iTunes. Pathetic. If the MPAA is 29% full of crap then the IFPI just lapped them. I wouldn’t call them ’stats’, I would call them IFPI talking points. The public at large seems so willing to just take an official looking report as ‘fact.’
The whole ‘you can’t compete with free’ lie/meme got decimated by Radiohead.
If someone likes iTunes or Rhapsody then they should use that service, but ignore the RIAA, MPAA and IFPI, et. al. They are utterly full of shizzle.

By: airj1012

airj1012 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:56:40 +0000

Yes, I would like to know how they determined that sales were down 10%. Are they comparing 2007’s numbers to the 1990s? I would imagine that sales would have been going up over the past few years.

By: Poker Sharks

Poker Sharks — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:55:57 +0000

“Tens of billions of songs were swapped illegally.”

Which bag of numbers did they pull that figure from?

I love how the general decline in all products such as houses/stocks/retail etc take into account the general economy but anything to do with entertainment, specifically music of film its got to be the illegal pirates.

Please.

By: Bjorn

Bjorn — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:55:40 +0000

I’ve been spending more on music since Amazon launched its MP3 store. I’ve bought tracks almost every week. Funny thing is, my co-workers still give me a funny look about me ‘buying’ music. I give them a funny look right back.

By: codeCrunch

codeCrunch — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:54:35 +0000

@2 or to seek new legislation with

By: Curioman

Curioman — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:52:49 +0000

I’m curious to know how they measure this stuff. I bet the Long Tail is much bigger than they can judge (little guys me selling on Amie St/Snocap/etc.) And the unlicensed to legal track ratio can’t be anything other than a guess. Still, fun numbers to start arguments with.

By: Perry

Perry — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:18:46 +0000

Nobody is buying the crappy music we produce….Waaaahhh!