Here is one thing that ticks me off about the recording industry. They whine and whine and whine about illegal file sharing of music. They use it as an excuse for falling sales and they act like it makes you a lowlife criminal if you download music via file sharing services.
Personally, when I buy albums I either go to Best Buy or I use iTunes. I do have a good number of friends who do download music using file sharing services. In my conversations with them, I have found that it's extremely rare that they will download an album that they would have purchased anyway. I maintain that most illegal music downloads are of albums that people would like to have, but that they don't feel strongly enough about to buy anyway.
Media outlets like Variety love to perpetrate the stereotype that music downloaders are killing the recording industy. Today's edition of the paper was a perfect example. Even as they are citing studies that show that file sharing services have a minimal impact on the recording industry, they are writing articles where the overall theme acts like file sharing services are a pox on the recording industry.
I'd like to see the recording industry get their crap together and just put out better music. THE COLLEGE DROPOUT by Kanye West and Usher's new album are perfect examples of tits albums that will continue to do well even in the file sharing world. Recording industry executives should worry about putting out more great albums like those two and worry less about college kids downloading albums that they wouldn't be able to afford, anyway.
Here is the referenced article from Variety:
Tune pirates on run
*********************************
RIAA lawsuits help, but problems remain
_
By BEN FRITZ
_
The RIAA's lawsuits against digital pirates have led a to a decrease in the number of people illegally trading music online -- but they are pushing the most dedicated downloaders onto new peer-to-peer services that make it even harder to track them.
That's the conclusion of a study by the non-profit Pew Internet & American Life Project. Recent survey by the group found that 14% of Internet users say they previously downloaded music files but don't do so anymore, and one-third of that group, around 6 million people, attribute the decision to the RIAA's legal campaign.
In addition, 60% of non-downloaders do not plan on starting because of the threat of RIAA lawsuits.
The total percentage of people who say they've ever downloaded music increased slightly from November to March, but that percentage, 18%, is still far lower than at any time before the RIAA suits began in September (some people are probably lying about never having downloaded music, while as the number of people who go online increases, the percentage who have downloaded music would naturally decrease). The recent increase can in part be attributed to growth for iTunes and other digital music stores, which accounted for 17% of downloading activity. P2P services accounted for 31% of online downloads, while 24% was from emails or instant messages, another category that primarily represents illegal file-sharing.
While iTunes reached over 50 million downloads last month, Pew wasn't able to track any direct correlation between the effect of the lawsuits and activity in the small but growing space of digital music stores.
"Our data clearly shows that public sensitivity to these issues has been raised," said Pew research specialist Mary Madden. "But there's nothing to suggest this strategy has increased sales or will do so in the long-term."
Findings are in line with others that have noted small increases in P2P activity after a big drop when the RIAA lawsuits started. Another study by researchers at Harvard Business School and the U. of North Carolina, however, reported that there is no discernible impact of illegal file-sharing on music sales, despite RIAA claims to the contrary.
Working with Internet traffic measurement company comScore Media Metrix, Pew also found that 5 million fewer people are using Kazaa, the most popular P2P program, than a year ago. That news is tempered, however, by growth for newer P2P applications like BitTorrent and eMule that make it more difficult for copyright holders to identify users.
Personally, when I buy albums I either go to Best Buy or I use iTunes. I do have a good number of friends who do download music using file sharing services. In my conversations with them, I have found that it's extremely rare that they will download an album that they would have purchased anyway. I maintain that most illegal music downloads are of albums that people would like to have, but that they don't feel strongly enough about to buy anyway.
Media outlets like Variety love to perpetrate the stereotype that music downloaders are killing the recording industy. Today's edition of the paper was a perfect example. Even as they are citing studies that show that file sharing services have a minimal impact on the recording industry, they are writing articles where the overall theme acts like file sharing services are a pox on the recording industry.
I'd like to see the recording industry get their crap together and just put out better music. THE COLLEGE DROPOUT by Kanye West and Usher's new album are perfect examples of tits albums that will continue to do well even in the file sharing world. Recording industry executives should worry about putting out more great albums like those two and worry less about college kids downloading albums that they wouldn't be able to afford, anyway.
Here is the referenced article from Variety:
Tune pirates on run
*********************************
RIAA lawsuits help, but problems remain
_
By BEN FRITZ
_
The RIAA's lawsuits against digital pirates have led a to a decrease in the number of people illegally trading music online -- but they are pushing the most dedicated downloaders onto new peer-to-peer services that make it even harder to track them.
That's the conclusion of a study by the non-profit Pew Internet & American Life Project. Recent survey by the group found that 14% of Internet users say they previously downloaded music files but don't do so anymore, and one-third of that group, around 6 million people, attribute the decision to the RIAA's legal campaign.
In addition, 60% of non-downloaders do not plan on starting because of the threat of RIAA lawsuits.
The total percentage of people who say they've ever downloaded music increased slightly from November to March, but that percentage, 18%, is still far lower than at any time before the RIAA suits began in September (some people are probably lying about never having downloaded music, while as the number of people who go online increases, the percentage who have downloaded music would naturally decrease). The recent increase can in part be attributed to growth for iTunes and other digital music stores, which accounted for 17% of downloading activity. P2P services accounted for 31% of online downloads, while 24% was from emails or instant messages, another category that primarily represents illegal file-sharing.
While iTunes reached over 50 million downloads last month, Pew wasn't able to track any direct correlation between the effect of the lawsuits and activity in the small but growing space of digital music stores.
"Our data clearly shows that public sensitivity to these issues has been raised," said Pew research specialist Mary Madden. "But there's nothing to suggest this strategy has increased sales or will do so in the long-term."
Findings are in line with others that have noted small increases in P2P activity after a big drop when the RIAA lawsuits started. Another study by researchers at Harvard Business School and the U. of North Carolina, however, reported that there is no discernible impact of illegal file-sharing on music sales, despite RIAA claims to the contrary.
Working with Internet traffic measurement company comScore Media Metrix, Pew also found that 5 million fewer people are using Kazaa, the most popular P2P program, than a year ago. That news is tempered, however, by growth for newer P2P applications like BitTorrent and eMule that make it more difficult for copyright holders to identify users.
