Sony BMG CD sales steady
p2p news / p2pnet: Sales of CDs infected by Sony BMG’s DRM spyware aren’t significantly down, "compared with other medium-selling titles at similar points in their release cycles" – at least up to the point of Sony’s recall last week.
So says Nielsen SoundScan, quoted by CNET News.
In fact, "sales of the title first and most widely associated with the problem, southern rockers Van Zant’s Get Right with the Man,’ actually climbed in the two weeks following exposure of the CD’s security risks, according to Nielsen SoundScan data," says CNET, going on:
"Celine Dion’s album ‘On Ne Change Pas’ held steady at 300 copies per week throughout the controversy. Several titles that were closer to their release dates, such as albums by Trey Anastasio and Puerto Rican singer Chayanne, showed more substantial drops over the same period of time. However, industry insiders said even these week-to-week drops were not unusual, close to an album’s release."
Any bets the picture won’t be looking quite so rosy in a week, say? Or that Sony BMG sales across the board won’t be affected?
Stay tuned.
Also read:-
CNET News – Sony sailing past rootkit controversy November 21, 2005
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:25 pm
…that a lot of people have still never heard of the Sony controversy, as the media play it’s received has actually been rather minimal. And as you point out, at the point this survey was run, there had been even less coverage.
Worse, many people simply don’t know which disks are Sony disks. Bet those sales would decline a bit if music stores were forced to identify them as such, or more specifically identify which disks contain rootkits.
The lawsuits will help that situation, as will the Texas AG going after them, the recall, further virus outbreaks, etc. Time will tell. As we all know, many (if not most) media outlets are part of the same companies that have much to lose if the Sony controversy does further damage to DRM efforts, so it makes sense that they’d be slow to give this item too much coverage.
November 22nd, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
I get all my news from the mainstream media
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
I believe everything the RIAA tells me
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
DRM is GOOD
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
November 23rd, 2005 at 5:24 am
The thing is that most users do not know or really understand what the issue is. While there is a large number of computer-savvy users there is an even larger number of users who do not understand the security implications. There are also users who do not use their computer to play CDs and thus do not see this as a threat.
Security Awareness is always low, Privacy Awareness is even lower and thus this story that sales are still consistent or growing does not surprise me.
I expect that we will see additional trends of “Call-Home” software and other forms of Spyware/Rootkits installed as the corporate industry trys to determine how to make new markets and protect their interest. I also believe that while the security and privacy industries are screaming, we will not see Sony make major strides to follow all of EFF’s recommendations. I expect we will see a lengthy court battle that will become really old news when there is an real outcome to deliver.
November 24th, 2005 at 2:10 am
How many people went out and bought a xcp cd just to get in on the law suites, if you have a junkie computer how better to get someone to buy you a new one, I do agree that the sony deal has not been a mainline topic on any major news coverage, most people do not have a clue what is happing, this is the way sony wants it.
November 24th, 2005 at 8:33 am
My god, everyone should know by now that CD sales figures are fixed. Numbers are manipulated to produce the desired effect. Lets wait to see what there Quartaly results are ….