CD Music Sales Down 20% In Q1 2007

prostoalex writes "Music sales are not just falling, they're plummeting — by as much as 20% when you compare January-March 2007 with the 2006 numbers. The revenue numbers are actually worse, since CD prices are under pressure. The Wall Street Journal lists many factors contributing to the rapid decline: 800 fewer retail outlets (Tower Records' demise alone closed 89); increasingly negative attitude towards CD sales from big-box retailers (Best Buy now dedicates less floor space to CDs in favor of better-selling items); and file sharing, among others. Songs are being traded at a rate about 17 times the iTunes Store's recent rate of sales. Diminishing CD sales means that you don't have to sell as many to get on the charts. The 'Dreamgirls' movie soundtrack recently hit #1 by selling 60,000 CDs in a week, a number that wouldn't have made the top 30 in 2005."

Na na na na...

[Weaselmancer]

Na na Na na...
Hey hey...
Goodbye!

I figured a song was in order. =)

Re:Ain't buying CD's no more

[Dr. Zowie]

Just stick a mild compressor (3-6 dB) on your CD output, then mix in a cassette recording of your fireplace. Those old CDs will sound GREAT! You'll get the warmth, the soft rush of air^H^H^Hthe vinyl surface, and the soft popping.

The Answer

[HTH NE1]

They will always feel that increased enforcement is the answer instead of recognizing that to a large extent, their product is not worth paying for.

That is illogical. Suing is the answer. Humans must be sued. They must pay their fines.
You are mistaken. Prosecuting is the answer. Humans must be prosecuted. They must pay their fines.
Suing is the answer.
Prosecuting is the answer.
I have sued many humans.
I have prosecuted many more.
Music profits are protected.
Humans have paid their fines.

Re:Stage Artists will do fine, perhaps even better

[no_opinion]

Yup, no rhetoric here. That explains why so few people show up to compete for major label contracts on American Idol and so few bands want that major label deal. Oh, wait...

I know everyone blames pirates...

[Peter Trepan]

...but they help us too. For instance, I am a professional pirate, and my business faces ruin. I don't mean that I have an eyepatch and cutlass and go around robbing ships. I mean I have an eyepatch and cutlass and go around robbing record stores. My trade has survived for years, but I now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Every day I ask myself why this is happening.

I inherited the title about 12 years ago from the Dread Pirate R0b3rtz. It was one of those practices that struck without warning, carried away as many CDs as possible, then scuttled the small, independent record stores as we left. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My practice specialised in aquiring family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't steal sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have stolen one of the most extensive Christian rock catalogues that I know of.

The business strategy worked. People flocked to my illegal fencing operation, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase records without profanity or violent lyrics. Over the years I expanded the business and took on even more cutthroat and ruthless employees. It took hard work and long hours but I had achieved my dream - owning a profitable pirate fleet that I had built with my own hands. But now, this dream is turning into a nightmare.

Every day, fewer and fewer of my stolen songs can be played. Why can no one play them? Do their players use proprietary formats? Are they not technologically inclined? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - the RIAA is mostly to blame. The statistics speak for themselves - one in three song files world wide is encrypted with DRM. On the Internet, you can hardly find any music that hasn't been locked down by the RIAA. It has the potential to destroy the piracy industry, from buccaneers, to swashbucklers, to Dread Pirates like myself. Before you point to the supposed "social conscience of consumers", I'll note that the book store just across from my store is getting robbed daily. Unlike music files, it's harder to apply DRM to books.

A week ago, an unpleasant experience with record industry executives gave me an idea. In my favorite bordello, I overheard a slick, ponytailed record executive talking to his rockstar friend.

"Babe, I'm going to lock down your music so hard that if you play it with your windows down, you'll be able to sue the pedestrians."

"Gnarly, man. I'm going to be coked up in the VIP room for life!"

I was fuming. So they were out to destroy record piracy from right under my nose? Fat chance. I grabbed the little ponytailed, bluetooth-wearing flake by his shirt. "Arrr...you're going to lock down the piracy industry, eh?" I asked him in my best Blackbeard/Erik The Viking voice.

"Uh y-yeh." He mumbled, shocked.

"That's it. What's your name? You shall bear the mark of the Black Dot. Now take yourself and your greasy toothpick of a friend out of my bordello - and don't come back." I barked. Cravenly, they complied and scampered off.

So that's my idea - give RIAA executives the Black Dot. If somebody cannot respect the superiority of pirates, then they shall die by my cutlass. If the music industry wants to exclude pirates, then pirates should keel-haul them. It's that simple. One strike, and you're out - one instance of DRM, and it's off the plank with you. If you want to play tough, you should expect the big dogs to take notice. It's really no different than the ATF setting Branch Davidians on fire.

I have just written a letter to the pirates guild outlining my proposal. Impaling RIAA executives one by one isn't going far enough. Not to mention record executives use the fact that they're being drawn and quartered to unfairly portray themselves as victims. A national register of record executives would make the problem far easier to deal with. People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected record

Time for a new business model...

[Cauchy]

Perhaps the music industry should just give up on selling cd's, allow free download of music, and resort to making money from product placement. We could have lyrics such as the following: I love you baby, like Pepsi. Won't you let me take you to dinner at Micky Dee's. Then we can cruise to my crib in my car, Chevy---it is the heartbeat of America. Tonight is going to be hot cuz I took my Levitra.

Obligatory Penn & Teller Link

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually... bottle water is an example of successful MARKETING... and not much else.
Bottle water is 1000x more expensive than tap.
FDA regulations on bottle water are much less strict than EPA's on tap water.
Studies shows that tap water quality is actually better than many bottled water.
A lot of bottled water actually come from taps and not from srings

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-286251761 0301228131 [google.com]

http://tinyurl.com/2jqrfb [tinyurl.com] (6 MB .mp4 video file) .mp4 file requires QuickTime 7 (free) or video iPod (not free) to view.

Re:shhh... can you hear that sound?

[kalpol]

You know, what I really want is art and poetry; I want to be moved, like what I'm listening to *means something*. I want an emotional response, and if not that, then at bare minimum I want clever and quirky or even funny, but what's out there now doesn't even deliver *that*.

Funny, I was just screaming the same thing off the balcony at work this morning.