So CD sales drop by 10 percent but DVD sales grow by huge numbers. Maybe the recording industry is barking at the wrong tree when blaiming piracy? Maybe CD´s are just loosing popularity?
Perhaps...Or people are taking advantage of discount prices on DVD's at Wal-Mart and other discount stores and replacing their old worn-out VHS tapes with inexpensive DVD's. Seems like older DVD's are selling between $6-10 will new releases can be picked up for around $15-20. Last time I checked the prices of some older CD's at Best Buy, the price was still around $13.99... Perhaps if the recording industry adjusted their prices down, they'd see an increase in sales too...
I agree with Ghostdog. The music industry, when they hand out figures, are always forgetting the fact that there's only a certain amount of cash in the world available. When they claim that they miss $10 billion due piracy -- where does this $10bn come from, if it would be actually put into CD purchases? It _has to_ come from some other area -- whether it is DVDs, your pension scheme, your clothes, fuel, etc. If you decide you're going to buy all the CDs instead of copy them, the amount you're spending to CDs doesn't just come to your bank account -- the Fed doesn't decide "oh, this guy needs $1500 this month for the monthly CD allowance" and send it to your bank account. Think about it -- the biggest consumer group for music CDs are teens (by English language definition, 13-19yrs olds) and they're also the prime target for DVD sales. And videogame sales (very much unknown fact to most people is that game industry surpassed movie industry last year in terms of annual sales). And teens normally have relatively tight budget, rarely a 14-year-old earns a good $50k a year -- 10yrs ago, their "entertainment budget" was pretty much mostly allocated to the music CDs (or cassettes / LPs) when VHS purchases werent exactly a big business and games still had the "geeky" image. Nowadays games, computer equipment, DVDs and CDs all compete for the same tight budget -- someone has to suffer. In this case, it seems to be the music industry that hasn't been able to push anything that "Really Matters" out for years. I think the "grunge" movement in early 1990s has been the last "musical revolution" that has made music the centerpiece of one generation's "rebellion against the system" that all generations face at some point. Just my €0.02..
The aging 'baby-boomer' population (post-war; 45+) are all over the place, with (presumably) the largest supply of 'disposable', discrectionary income. ('Course, I haven't seen much of it). <g> (Since I love to 'tease' you, Petteri....)
Quote:From UHF Magazine (Ultra-High Fidelity), Issue # 60: "WHO BUYS RECORDS? -- Most records are bought by the very young, right? Wrong, according to the RIAA, the US association of record companies. According to their survey of US buyers, carried out by an independent research firm, the biggest buyers of records are those aged 45 or over! Last year they bought nearly a quarter of all records sold, but in 1990 they were buying only 11.1% of records. The bubblegum set? Just 8.5% for those 10 to 14, and 12.6% for other teenagers." Maybe that's why we keep hearing so much these days about different Records Companies <there's not a whole lot of them left; everyone has been bought out & 'assimilated' into the "Big 4">, wanting to go online with their catalogs. (Huge Profits from the baby boomers). -- My .02c again. --
Think about it -- the biggest consumer group for music CDs are teens (by English language definition, 13-19 yr. olds.
Mike: Wow, thanks. Age group 45+ is the biggest buyer of music and meanwhile recording industry is focusing virtually all its efforts to produce music that is aimed for teenagers/pre-teens :-) Maybe they consider the 45+ as a lost generation that only buys re-re-re-re-re-re-prints of the music they used to listen when they were in their teens, who knows :-) But seriously speaking, 45+ is a whopping big age bracket, compared to 10 to 14 (five years, if including 10 and 14 year olds -- while 45+ means everybody between 45 and 150). One of the nicest basic things how to make statistics look different what they are :-) So, I still guess that agegroup 10 to 14 buys more CDs than age group 40 to 44.
(Yep) - Figures can be both manipulated and manipulative.
(Boys-oh-Boys, it's hard to pull one over your eyes!) 
- mgb -
If we add the number for all teenagers, we get 8.5+12.6=21.1 %, that is nearly a quarter of the sales. Exactly what they give for the 45+ group.
Lies, damned lies, statistics :-) The way you read the statistics has at least as much meaning as the statistics themselves :-) My favourite reasoning has always been: McDonalds has existed appx. 50 years. During the 50 years, in those countries where McDonalds operates, the average living age has increased by almost 15 years. Therefor, McDonalds food is healthy.
Equally healthy is your healthy scepticism. It's refreshing! ("Cool & clean with just a 'touch' of minty-ness"). Crisp, even! Remember: Always believe what everyone tells you, *especially* by Multi-Billion Dollar International Conglomerates, who, after all, only have your best interests at heart. (I bet microsoft hates this website). :) -- mgb --
I think the record industries should start selling cds in single formats (one song with different version mixes)if they wanna boost their sells. Think about it; why would you buy the whole album if you just want 1 song or 2 out of 12? Maybe thats why people just download their favorite songs on the net instead of buying the whole album for $15. I don't feel pity to the RIAA cause they're damn greedy anyways.
They already do, it's 7 $ for the two tracks CD, without jewel case, and 11 $ for the CD with 4 versions and a slim case.
Just downloaded 5 tracks from a free Promo offered to Europeans. (And I don't even live in Europe). I chose 'HMV' as the record company. Nothing has changed. The tracks are WAY overpriced, and are fully DRM protected except for a substancially-reduced number of selected tracks you can burn. (They select what tracks you can burn, not you). The DRM files suck. Wma format (what else?) 128Kbps. (Whoopie). Glaring omissions of key albums in their artists' back-catalogue. I'll hang on to the crippled music files in hopes that someday, some enterprising young programmer figures out how to kill the drm. (It was once done for earlier versions of wma files <unfu--.exe> ), but the new, stinkier DRM is a tough nut to crack. Will shortly be taking WMP 7 off my system. (If I can - it may leave all sorts of crud scattered throughtout my HDD.) Best Bet still = P to P. -- Mike --
If you listen to the Radio these days you'll see that the Radio is focused on Teens. They play the same 40-100 songs (which could fit onto 1 700 MB MP3 disk. Not only that but they never announce the artist or the album and song name all at once. How does anyone know what to buy if it is not mentioned over the Radio. Thank God for satellite Radio and Cable TV in which announce the artists work. I think the RIAA needs to look at the bigger picture. Next thing I want to mention is the fact that the NPAA is a damn Liar. They told the government that they have lost millions of dollars due to Piracy. This is all out fraud. If we'd done this while filing our income taxes we'd be inprisoned. I help run a business called Voice Mail Exchange and we have to report E V E R Y T H I N G! ! ! So this is a clear and long overdue proof that P2P has absolutely nothing to do with loss in sales. The US judges sould stop listening to all of their crying and tell these guys to stop crying and prove it or shut the heck up. It is time to get the public to stop thinking it will all go away soon. The RIAA is playing very foul and so are the NPAA. To combat this we need to start getting tough against these terrorists and I damn well mean terrorists. They are now using scare tactics to dominate the Internet with their propaganda to do away with any organization that might compete with their distribution methods. it has been quite clear that the P2P networks were willing to use the money that was gained via advertisements to pay the artists for the Downloads. The RIAA and NPAA wanted more more more. What they don't tell you as the fact that Napster was more than willing to cut a deal. The RIAA wanted to cut P2P off altogether. They have said it all too maney times that they won't stop until it is G O N E. I guess even being a liar and a fraud is better then a simple few Downloads by some college students. If this kind of lawlessness is allowed to continue in the corporate sector, then the small business person will be yanked out of the picture altogether. This is what Microsoft did to take over the PC world. However we have idiots in our government that don't know their amps from a hole in the ground. And this is why we'll suffer from CD's with poor sound quality and the fact that we need a home console CD player (one without DVD or MP3) to play these infected CD's on. I won't buy a CD that I can't play on my combo unit. I paid good money for it and I have the God given right to use it and to hell with copy protection. Start a law suit against the RIAA for every CD you can't play on your DVD/CD player. If they have to buy one million people a day a CD player to play their CD's, they'll stip this crap. Get off your fanny people and start doing something about it. Stop the purchase of every damn pre recorded CD. If you have to buy one buy it USED. This way the record company gets zero dollars and zero cents for that CD. Send a message to these people that the stakes for their fraud out waigh the stakes of P2P.
