Not really news, I would say: CD sales are in free fall (see below). Except for EMI which recently announced a bold move towards selling MP3s (even though there is plenty to complain on how exactly they plan to do it), and maybe UMG who is rumored to offer MP3s via Amazon's new service, the major record labels still PREFER CONTROL OVER MONEY. In other words, they would rather NOT sell MP3s or other non-DRM formats since they can't control what we (aka the evil users, and the people formerly known as consumers) would eventually do with them (OMG: we may actually share them without permission!), then to MAKE MONEY with their music. As long as they keep pounding on the idea of having-the-cake and eating it, too, people will buy less and less CDs and continue to download for free, simply because there are so few other, worthy, easy, attractive options. Get it? It's NOT the evil intent that creates the free-loaders it's YOUR intent to control the consumer that is being rejected. And please don't tell me iTunes is such a perfect option and 'everyone that wants to be legal can just use iTunes: yes, it's easy and works great but the economic model as far as music sales in concerned (as opposed to hardware) is fatally flawed: a dwindling fraction of consumers will buy songs for $1 per track, in the long run --- everybody just stops spending at a certain point (I did at approx $800), and will look for options that don't punish interest in new music.
Here is my simplified recipe: 1) offer ALL music in open, 100% compatible formats 2) offer back catalog deals, bundles, subscriptions, and sooner or later, flat rates 3) start providing added values that only YOU can provide (such as bonus tracks, video, chats, blog / backstage access, concert downloads) 4) start treating the users / listeners / fans with the love they deserve (to put it in sorta california terms) instead of with the hate that your lawyers have in stock for them.
Wake up and smell the roses of music2.0 - or continue to "Duck and Cover" and be obliterated by the atom bomb that the Internet is to the media industries.
Read: Music CD sales fall 13 pct through 2006 in U.S. - Yahoo! News.
"Though sales of music in digital formats such as downloads and mobile ringtones more than doubled in some cases during the year, digital sales did not grow fast enough to cover the revenue gap caused by the downturn in CD sales. Consequently overall music sales were down by 6.2 percent to $11.51 billion..."
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