p2pnet - rss feed: Downloads on the downturn
p2p news / p2pnet: We, “believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat.”
“We” is the Big Four Organized Music cartel’s RIAA (Recording Industry Associaition of America) and the quote comes from Mitch Bainwol, the man primarily responsible for dissemblance in the US on behalf of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.
File trading is another phrase for file sharing and Bainwol’s latest dis- and misinformation statement only serves to further highlight the fact that the Big Four are on a distinctly slippery slope.
US Digital Track Trends Weakening, a study focusing on the possibility (likelihood?) that EMI and Warner will morph, turning the Big Four into the Big Three, says far from emerging into a “growing, thriving business,” corporate downloads are decreasing.
” In 2006, despite the aggregate year-to-date strength in digital tracks, weekly performance continues to decline, with every week during the second quarter below the year-to-date average,” says Pali Research’s Richard Greenfield, going on:
In 2006, despite the aggregate year-to-date strength in digital tracks, weekly performance continues to decline, with every week during the second quarter below the year-to-date average.
During calendar Q2/Q3 2005, we were concerned that digital track growth was flattening out, albeit Q4 2005 showed a dramatic acceleration that continued through Q1 ’06.
We are now concerned that digital tracks will actually be down sequentially in Q2 ’06 (over the past 9 quarters since digital began, growth has never been less than 8% sequentially).
While new revenue streams that are not included in the digital track figure (OTA downloads, streaming music videos, ringtones, etc..) are offsetting the track slowdown, with physical sales down 5.4% year-to-date, the music industry needs as much growth as possible in digital tracks to achieve a flat-to-up 2006 (currently up 2.0%).
Meanwhile, the popularity of downloads is indeed booming, but in the real world of onloine music where the indie sites and p2p networks hold sway, rather than in the corporate sector which at this point if virtually non-existent.
This May, globally, the number of p2p users simultaneously logged on at any given moment was 9,735,661, p2p research firm Big Champagne told p2pnet. In May, 2005, the number was 8,665,319 and in 2004, 7,286,377.
In the US in May, 2005, the number was 6,290,327 and in 2004, it was 4,589,255.
Digg this story.
Also See:
thriving business - P2p file sharing contained: RIAA, June 13, 2006
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June 16th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
So if I understand this properly; Big 4’s sale of digital media has, for the first time since they ‘introduced’ it, started to decline.
I guess we can add this to the list of possible reasons why the RIAA have declared themselves the winners in the ’sue the customer’ campaign.
what I’ve got so far for possible reasons:
It’ll be easier to convince politicians in other countries to alter their laws in favour of the cartels if they are not seen as proiting from suing their customers.
The decline in digital music sales has shown them they cannot have their cake and eat it as well, the backlash from the ’sue em all’ campaign (and the root kit) is starting to be felt.
anyone have anymore? We definatly know it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts, or from ‘winning the war’
June 16th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
I would also suggest that those that were past music customers expect things they are not getting for their money. They see these changes as lack of value and therefore not worth the money.
Younger music lovers are discovering or have discovered that in order to use those digital files as they wish in a way that is meaningful in their lives are left with doing what is deemed illegal in some countries in order to do so. Again, lack of value for the money.
The mandatory DRM is responcible for this along with high prices for items that don’t allow for modifications into the users lifestyle. If you’ve a car with a cd player, then you are limited in what you can do to make that music into the form of taking it with you. Tape player? While old, those had no such limitations. Purchasers expect value when they pay for something and that value isn’t in digital.
During the early days of the cd, the paying public was fasinated with the shiney disc. A media that was more durable than tape or vinyl. It is hard to develop an interest in a product you can’t hold, touch, or feel. The feeling for digital product is akin to the customer paying for breathing air when all around them it is free. There is no container to point to and say, “See what I bought, ain’t it nice?” With the rapid changes in the electronic world, buying something for your own personal collection is worse than buying games with the idea you will always be able to play them. Changes in the operating systems, computers, and the media cartels’ demands that players conform to their standards for protection mean that just because it plays today, doesn’t mean it will play next year when you have to replace a worn out player. This in turn means that your collection and the money you invested in it are worthless when you have to replace them with newer files, conforming to the latest demands of the cartels.
Buyers no longer see value equivalent to rentals at ownership costs. Sue ‘em all isn’t winning them any customers over either. Just the opposite is the case with public resentment on a slow simmering build to a boil. Attempting to make your potential customer criminals when they sample what they wish to learn of, is further slowing down any interest of discovering new material. After having been stung over and over by poor product and over hype the buying public has lost it’s love affair with an industry that has lost touch with what the public really wants. The industry in its greed has also lost touch with the idea the businesses operate on repeat sales, not the one time sale. It seems as if in it’s greed to wring every last penny the idea that a satisfied customer is one that returns for more, has been lost.
And so slowly dies the dinosaur from financial starving and poor public opinion of its methods.
June 17th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
I don’t know where the RIAA gets it’s information from, But we have not waived the white flag. We are continuing to rip and release cds for the benefit of the consumer. DRM free high quality mp3s for all says our founders.
We will never surrender! We don’t need to. If our group was destroyed today, another would take our place by tomorrow. The RIAA can claim victory all it likes, but statistics from various sites indicates otherwise.
Like the dinosaur, it just doesn’t know it’s dead yet.
June 17th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
150% bullshit
except for the part that corporate downloads are falling