Hilary Rosen, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, blamed the decline mainly on illegal downloading of music off the Internet. "There's no question that the availability of free music on the Internet is not having the stimulative effect that the proponents of this piracy suggest," she said Friday. Citing RIAA surveys, she added, "Our younger buyers are telling us they are buying significantly less albums because they're finding what they want for free on the Internet." The slumping economy also has contributed to the decrease, Rosen said, although the industry historically has not suffered declines in bad economic times. "Our older buyers are telling us that they've been affected by the economy," she said.

First, I'm not going to trust an RIAA executive citing RIAA "surveys" (Yes, I'm sure those were scientific. As if the RIAA wasn't going to conclude that piracy was the reason for their declining sales). We could dismiss this nonsense except that this is the type of "information" Big Media will spout until they can push for legislation, an alarming possibility. Second, while I don't doubt some people would cut back on luxuries such as CD purchases for economic reasons, I would suspect that many "older buyers" are simply tired of the mass-produced girl/boy band/nu-metal/crap rap/crap rock that is churned out by the music industry. How much out there is worth buying and how much of that which is worth buying is easily found by discriminating consumers? Last, what other industry blames consumers for its own failure to sell its product?

posted by the wolf | 10:22 AM
on this

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