Record label Fact and Fiction
p2pnet.net News:- In spite of the music industry’s bleating and whining that p2p file sharing is costing millions of dollars, that thousand of jobs are being lost and that everyone is having a really, really hard time financially, 2003 was a record year for Australia’s record industry.
You can be sure that if one sector is doing well – very well, in this case – the others aren’t far behind.
You can also be sure that if there’d been a way for the ARIA ( Australian Record Industry Association) to lie about the numbers, it would have.
However, there are far too many people in too many places who would have loved to spill the beans. So the ARIA had to go with reality.
Not that it didn’t try to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear.
Record industry types aren’t usually shy about success, writes Steve Cannane in the Sydney Morning Herald here, going on:
"But this time their success is a little embarrassing. For the past few years the industry has argued that file-sharing and CD burning is having a negative impact on sales. But, unfortunately, their own sales figures don’t back up their arguments.
"ARIA’s press release was slugged with a bizarre headline: ‘Music DVD continues its rise whilst CD singles slide further’. A mixed year, you might think. Not so. It took a canny finance reporter, SBS’s Peter Martin, to decode the spin. He had access to ARIA sales figures going back to the early 1980s. He worked out what ARIA knew but decided not to share: when sales cracked 50 million albums for the year it was the first time this had happened. And combined sales of all formats for last year climbed to more than 65 million for the first time." [Our emphasis]
Back in 1998, the year before Shawn Fanning and Napster, Australian record companies sold 39.6 million CD albums and five years later, the figure had gone up to 50.5 million, says the story:
"That makes it hard to argue that downloading and CD copying has been killing sales."
But what about the sales of singles?
While album sales increased by 7.85%, singles sales went down by 16.5%, says Cannane, but, "what would you rather? We know which format makes the most money. ARIA wants to stress the drop in singles sales because it suits its argument.
"But it’s not telling the whole truth. It neglects to mention the record companies are not releasing as many singles as they used to. Sales of singles do not make much money. Singles are these days pretty much released for promotional purposes – to get radio play and drum up interest in an album. In the US, singles have virtually disappeared from sale.
"But what about our research, I hear the record companies scream. ARIA paid a research company to survey music consumers. The survey results suggest there’s been a 12 per cent decrease in CD purchases by people who are into file-sharing. The greatest percentage is with the under-17s – people who don’t have much money. But the research suggests those with the money, the 45 and overs, are buying more CDs after file-sharing. Now that’s a statistic we never hear quoted."
The SMH has Stephen Peach, ceo of ARIA, saying, "The free ride simply can’t continue indefinitely at the expense of the owners and creators of music."
Ignore the rhetoric of record companies caring about artists for a moment, Cannane says, and, "Maybe it’s the record industry that’s getting a free ride from file-sharing – a massive marketing system that allows music lovers to get exposed to all kinds of music without the record industry having to pay a cent.
"I’ll tell you what the record companies are paying for now, and it’s not scholarships for the struggling artists they say they’re trying to protect. It’s lawsuits. ARIA is taking on Kazaa and suing university students. American record companies have sued nearly 2000 file-sharers in the past six months.
"Even the FBI has become involved. It says music piracy has become its third priority behind terrorism and counter-intelligence. A number of US Congress members who rely on the entertainment industry for campaign funds lobbied the FBI to spend more money hunting file-sharers and CD burners. So now CDs in the US carry FBI stickers warning of fines of $250,000 or five years in prison.
"There’s been no similar push by Australia’s Federal Police. But keep your eyes on the figures – next year could be another record year for album sales and for prosecutions."
March 29th, 2004 at 7:36 pm
Let me get this straight. “Even the FBI has become involved. It says music piracy has become its third priority behind terrorism and counter-intelligence,”? Are you kidding me?
I want to get this out in the open, and on the table. The FBI has absolutely no place wasting its valuable resources on fighting the battles of a rapidly dying “industry”. In the scheme of important things, this doesn’t even make the top 20. I’d rather they put a few more agents protecting against deadly terrorist attacks then have them seeking out a college kid who shares his music. Where are our heads people?
Why don’t we stop for a second, take a step back and examine what’s worthwhile and what is not. I think anybody with more than a 65 IQ can realize that the public won’t stand for the tactics of the RIAA, and an approach involving criminalizing file-sharers will not solve the problem. All it will do is ALIENATE the consumers from the music industry, EXTORT money out of the aforementioned consumers, and WASTE government money that could be used for something productive!
March 29th, 2004 at 9:47 pm
Let’s see…the facts prove that file sharing is not harming the music industry and may actually be helping it. How does the RIAA respond? They sue file sharers, call them thieves and claim that file sharers are costing people their jobs while crying poor. Further response: They convince the FBI to turn their attention to the file sharers and pay off senators in order to have the laws changed.
Meanwhile, political experts blame a lack of intelligence for the terrorist attacks. The terrorist attacks really hurt the economy and yet the powers that be have decided to put a lot of FBI resources towards stopping file sharing.
I think many people will vote against Bush in this election. Get him and his administration the hell out of there and give someone else a chance to fix things.