Study Finds P2P Has No Effect on Legal Music Sales

MBrichacek writes "The Journal of Political Economy is running the results of a study into P2P file-sharing, reports Ars Technica. The study has found that, contrary to the claims of the recording industry, there is almost no effect on sales from file-sharing. Using data from several months in 2002, the researchers came to the conclusion that P2P 'affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe.' 803 million CDs were sold in 2002, according to the study, which was a decrease of about 80 million from the previous year. While the RIAA has been blaming that drop (and the drop in subsequent years) on piracy, given the volume of file-sharing that year the impact from file sharing could not have been more than 6 million albums total. Thus, 74 million unsold CDs from that year are 'without an excuse for sitting on shelves.'"

Re:How bizarre...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about you, but I like to use P2P to trade pictures of your mother.

Actually that's a lie. I know you do it, too.

Hey record companies.

[robably]

You know what would shift those 74 million unsold CDs? Robot monkeys. A free robot monkey with each CD. Ones wearing little black leather jackets for the rock CDs, pink tutus for girl bands, green hair for punks. You could call them Andy The Happy Robot CD Monkey & His Fab Monkey Pals if you like.

My pleasure.

Re:Can't Say I'm Surprised

[roderik]

Correct

Re:There is an excuse

[NormalVisual]

I would have loved to have seen Rush back in the 80s. I just didn't have the funds.

I knew that you'd be kinda strapped for cash then, so I went out of my way to see several Rush concerts for your benefit during the mid/late 80's. They kicked ass then, as was to be expected. In particular, the Hampton, VA dates for the Power Windows and Hold Your Fire tours were quite good - Blue Oyster Cult opened the Power Windows concert, and Primus opened for Hold Your Fire.

Re:How bizarre...

[BlueCodeWarrior]

One might even say that some people think that P2P affects sales, while other people think it effects sales.

Re:When the going gets tough...

[dapsychous]

He had accidentally set chmod 511 /earth instead of chmod 711 /earth and had to include the ! to override the write permissions on the planet.

In other news

[mapkinase]

Study Finds P2P Has No Effect on Legal Music Sales

The other study Finds Stealing Has No Effect on Wealth of the Riches.

Re:When the going gets tough...

[cmorgan47]

gotcha....i assumed that he had, well, "god" rights.
but i suppose those rights would allow him to create such a situation.....

could god create a file so locked down that even he couldn't modify it? will now replace the "large rock" zen question.