RIAA's Own Figures Show The Real Impact Of File Sharing
from the not-so-bad dept
The RIAA is out talking excitedly about a new study showing that they're shipping more CDs than last year. Of course, as we noted earlier this year, the RIAA is only using CDs shipped to stores rather than CDs sold to consumers, which allows them to adjust the numbers to make whatever point they want. However, the latest numbers actually make the argument of those who have opposed the RIAA's views all this time. First, CD shipments are up -- even though the use of file sharing is more popular today than it was when they started their pointless lawsuit process. This suggests that it wasn't so much the file sharing that was the problem, but a weaker economy. At the same time, the new numbers show that top hitmakers are still facing a sales slump, but the increase in shipments is being made up in the long tail, suggesting that people really do use file sharing to sample and find new artists they're interested in. Of course, you don't hear any of that in the RIAA's explanation of the numbers. They attribute all the success to the lawsuits, which they say need to continue.
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