The record industry poured a little more fuel on the online piracy wars Friday, blaming a steep decrease in CD singles sales in 2000 on unauthorized Internet downloads. |
Shipments of singles fell by nearly 40 percent last year, after relatively flat growth in the two previous years, the Recording Industry Association of America said. Overall, CD sales were up slightly for the year, compared with 1999 sales, however.
The industry said the drop in singles sales was "principally brought on by new options provided by the Internet."
...
The drop in singles sales, which account for less than one percent of the industry's revenues, doesn't amount to a scathing indictment of the effect of music-swapping services like Napster on the music industry, however.
...
The recording industry has long argued that services like Napster, which allow unrestricted access to a huge library of free music, would ultimately cut into their record sales. To date, statistics have not yet backed this claim up, however. Sales of CDs have consistently grown, although not spectacularly, since the popularity of file-swapping services began exploding online.
So because of Napster there is no decrease in CD sales (only singles, but that's only for less than 1% of the revenue). CD sales even increased. But I know it's not about the economic profit, but artists' rights to control their own work...
Source: Yahoo News
