CD Sales Increasing, RIAA Keeps Quiet

Found on Techdirt on Monday, 05 July 2004
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Funny. For the past few recession-impacted years, every time an article came out talking about how CD sales were down, they included an ominous quote from a recording industry official claiming that online downloads were destroying the industry and the American way was about to be wiped out by hoards of pirates. So, where are those people when (as the economy rebounds) sales actually begin picking up? As Ernest Miller notes, they don't seem to be "blaming" file sharing for their new found success. They don't seem to be saying much of anything, actually, even though file sharing continues at about the same pace it did a few years ago. Maybe, just maybe, there were other factors involved in the decline in album sales. However, with such an easy scapegoat, don't expect the industry to buy it.

Of course they don't say a word now, because more people would start to ask why they dragged hundreds of users to court if filesharing obviously did not harm the sales. And, they would have to present other reasons, such as bad music, increased prices and not to forget their latest masterpiece: copy protection (which in fact is no copy protection all, but annoys users greatly).