The music industry does like to insist that filesharing - aka
illegal downloading - is killing the industry: that every one of the millions of
music files downloaded each day counts as a "lost" sale, which if only it could
somehow have been prevented would put stunning amounts of money into
impoverished artists' hands. And, of course, music industry bosses'
wallets.
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it som...
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Saved by 18 people (-2 private), first by anonymouse user on 2009-06-10
- Jbenn816 on 2009-09-27 - Tags no_tag
- Stanjourdan on 2009-06-30 - Tags musique , piratage
- Marcel on 2009-06-20 - Tags musicbiz
- Acabanis on 2009-06-17 - Tags uk , cc , stats , hadopi , music , copyright , piracy
- Amaurydebuchet on 2009-06-15 - Tags music , download , piracy , guardian , p2p , mp3 , Delicious
Public Sticky notes
Highlighted by jbenn816
(It's surprising how hard it was to find these statistics. You'd think someone like ELSPA, the European Leisure Software Publishers' Association, would have them. Nope: instead initially I had to track them via press releases. The BPI, representing British record labels, said that it didn't have numbers going back before 2004, which seemed a bit 1984-ish to me; it turns out the BPI doesn't like to release those figures because it changed the methodology for recording sales in 2004, effectively reducing the number. At least DVD data are easily obtained from the British Video Association and the UK Film Council. Thank you.)
Highlighted by ifroggy
The first clue of where all those downloaders are really spending their money came in searching for games statistics: year after year ELSPA had hailed "a record year". In fact if you look at the graph above, you'll see that games spend has risen dramatically - from £1.18bn in 1999 to £4.03bn in 2008.
Meanwhile music spending (allowing for that * of adjustment in 2004 onwards) has gone from £1.94bn to £1.31bn.
DVD sales and rentals, meanwhile, have nearly doubled, from a total of £1.286bn in 1999 to £2.56bn in 2008.
If we assume that there's roughly the same amount of discretionary spending available (which, even allowing for the credit bubble, should be roughly true; most of the credit went into houses), then it's clear who the culprit is: the games industry. By 2009, the amount spent in games and music is almost exactly the same as 1999 (though note that the music industry changed its methods from 2004).
Yes, downloaders aren't spending money on the music industry, and in that way they are hurting it. But I'd argue that the true volume of "lost" sales is nowhere near the claims made. Assume that music couldn't be copied (as many games can't). I don't think that the volume of music sales would equate to all those downloads. At best, it would be £600m larger.
Highlighted by marcel
In fact if you look at the graph above, you'll see that games spend has risen dramatically - from £1.18bn in 1999 to £4.03bn in 2008.
Highlighted by ifroggy
Meanwhile music spending (allowing for that * of adjustment in 2004 onwards) has gone from £1.94bn to £1.31bn.
Highlighted by ifroggy
VD sales and rentals, meanwhile, have nearly doubled, from a total of £1.286bn in 1999 to £2.56bn in 2008.
Highlighted by ifroggy
But the reality is that nowadays, one can choose between a game costing £40 that will last weeks, or a £10 CD with two great tracks and eight dud ones.
Highlighted by ifroggy
Public Comment