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Fewer Downloads, But Does That Actually Help The Music Industry?
from the what-do-the-stats-say? dept
Lots of hype this morning about a new study suggesting that the RIAA's "sue everyone!" strategy is getting people to stop downloading. The study has found fewer downloads, and say that the drop is bigger than you would expect for "seasonal" changes. I don't think it's a surprise that a percentage of people have decided to stop downloading music, but I don't think that's the point. While some are interpreting this study to say that the RIAA's tactics are "working" - I think the stats only show half the story. The more interesting number is whether or not sales of CDs go up at a corresponding rate to the number of downloads that decreased. Since the music industry insists that any download is actually a stolen song, shouldn't that mean any decrease in downloads automatically means an increase in CD sales? If CD sales continue to slump, wouldn't that suggest that the RIAA's basic assumption (downloading hurts CD sales) is wrong?
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Also around that time the apple itunes store opened up and they had about 1 million downloads the first week or two ... forget the actual stat but it was high.
Could be that once people were provided with a better model for acquiring music legally that file sharing no longer held the appeal it used to ?
Think maybe the 4 or so million users they are down are all mac heads ?
I've used both file sharing services and the apple store and the apple store simply provides a better experience and takes a hell of a lot less time to find what you're looking for.
Yo, record companies (and rolling stones) ARE YOU LISTENING ?????
RJD
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IMO those matters would have a little to do with it, but although i've stopped downloading it's more to do with the fact that all the new songs out are pure crap =]
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It is summer - with all the college kids back home with Mom and Dad's dial up connection. Let see what happens next month when they are back on campus with practically unlimited bandwidth.
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Could it be also a factor that many many people have already downloaded what they wanted?
I used to download a lot (wrong or right) mostly songs I have already on old tapes or CDs I can't be bothered to rip or my old vinyl...and a percentage of stuff that I didn't originally have...
but personally it's been about 4-5 months since I've downloaded an MP3, I've got the songs I want and none of the new crap is something my ears crave.
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Who is saying there are fewer downloads? Is it the RIAA? This information isn't exactly public. Who's releasing it, and how credible is that information?
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According to my unscientific calculations of signing on daily, I can see that the amount of file shares or Kazaa has not decreased and hovers around the high 3 million mark and frequently goes over 4 million.
I suspect these are RIAA " facts " being force fed to the public is their poor attempt to intimidate.
I think they call that propoganda
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