He makes two key assertions: 1) that the labels raised CD prices during a down economy, and 2) that they slashed the number of new releases by almost 25% during the past three years. He says that these factors, and not downloading, are responsible for sluggish CD sales.
OK, class, let’s review.
- We raise the price of an increasingly less-expensive commodity — the CD media itself — no matter what the economy’s doing
- we give the consumer fewer opportunities to buy what we actually produce — music recordings — even as the times and places they listen to music expand: portable players now make it possible to listen to recorded music every waking minute of the day
- the kinds of music available and the tastes of our audience both explode in a variety of directions but we pay no attention to that. radio ownership is so concentrated, we can’t sell that stuff to advertisers, so let’s pretend it isn’t there
Great article: it fights FUD with facts, some of which the RIAA has been trying to hide (why else would they stop releasing information about how many new titles they release in 2001, just as the allegations about piracy became widely discussed?).
Not that I’ve bought any lately, but I may just cancel any planned CD purchases until they wake up.