Music industry propaganda hits a bum note

Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Stilgherrian writes:

The digitial revolution in music distribution is starting to get nasty, writes technology blogger Stilgherrian.

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Kevin Charles Herbert Wednesday, 7 May 2008 8:26:33 PM: Who could trust a bunch of lackeys like the ARIA stooges
Nick Tuesday, 6 May 2008 4:03:36 PM: 1) the MIPI website's statistics clearly state, "Illegitimate channels account for 10.7% of all music acquired by the general population". So that would mean profits are down by roughly 10.7%? ie. from, say $61,000,000 to $55,000,000. How do they stay in business? 2) as Guise correctly points out, the majority of music downloaded simply would not be bought anyway. on average, people buy maybe 30-50 albums in their life? some people have downloaded maybe an extra 100? if they were unable to download those extra 100 albums, they'd still have only bought (afforded to buy) the 30-50 they own, and continue to buy...last time I looked, retail record stores were as busy/busier than ever. factor 1 & 2 together, and how much do you think the record industry is actually losing (from piracy)? the MIPI website's FAQ sheets paint a picture so contrary to the way Oz record industry operates, they're positively laughable. lets hope our politicians can see through this nonsense.
Robert Tuesday, 6 May 2008 3:26:28 PM: The music industry isn't struggling, in fact "Australia's recorded music industry is literally moving ahead in leaps and bounds." Check out what Peter Martin wrote in his blog back in March: "The latest Australian Recording Industry Association sales figures released very quietly on the eve of Good Friday show that in fact the legal sales of recorded music climbed to an all time high in 2007 - a high that could only have been dreamed about in the years before the advent of downloading and CD burning." Read the full story here: http://petermartin.blogspot.com/2008/03/tuesday-column-ditch-spin-its-record.html
Guise Tuesday, 6 May 2008 3:10:51 PM: MIPI have a long history of verballing both their opponents and supporters - to the extent of trying to get questionable changes made to the transcripts of Senate Committee hearings. Their campaign against universities - who they have accused of 'actively facilitating' piracy - has been particularly galling. The thing that astonishes me most about their clinging to an outmoded business model is that the internet gives them the opportunity to eliminate the costs of manufacturing and distributing physical objects - or even tranferring them to the consumer - with no impact on their inflated bottom line. Worst of all is their reliance on spurious figures for lost sales. Speaking a serial offender in the donwloading game, let me tell you: I never intended to buy many of those albums. Many other downloaders would say the same. That's hardly lost revenue. On the other hand, there are also many disks I bought ONLY because I got the chance to listen to them on MP3 first. Get a clue, guys.
Nick Tuesday, 6 May 2008 2:36:50 PM: of course there's a decline in major label record sales - far less records are being released by major labels. in the last 10 years they've more than halved the number of acts on their rosters.