p2pnet - rss feed: Record labels must ‘act decisively’
Hands up anyone who thinks online sales will be the music industry’s saviour in the short- to medium-term. And hands up if you believe, "the success of the new download services proves there is a viable market for legitimate digital sales, but the music companies must act decisively to stop the growth of the illegal services and the widespread copying of CDs".
If you’re not up for the first proposition, but agree with the second, you might find a new Informa Media Group report of value - but whether or not you’ll want to cough up $US975 for the whole thing is an entirely different question.
The just-released Global Music Industry (3rd edition) says the value of global music sales will keep on falling up to 2005, and the global value will drop below $28 billion in 2004 before returning to growth in 2005, "driven primarily by the restriction of online file exchange coupled with greater control of CD copying. By the end of 2008 the value of global sales is estimated to have risen to $32 billion".
Simon Dyson, who wrote the report, says the music industry is in a bad way at the moment but the continued fall in the value of music sales is certainly not irreversible. "The success of the new download services …." and so on.
But what success? Apple’s iTunes is usually offered up as THE ONE. But ceo Steve Jobs certainly doesn’t think it is.
In fact, the iTunes Music Store exists not to make money from online music: it’s to help Apple sell iPods and even worse, "With ITunes Music Store, most of the money goes to the music labels," Jobs says.
"We’d like to break even, make a little money. That’s why, when I look at Roxio Napster and all these other companies, I think they’re spending money on a business that can’t make money."
And to make himself thoroughly clear, "I’m kind of puzzled why these companies want to get into a business like this. It makes no sense," he says.
