Music sales decline 20% in 2003

²°°³webkev²°°³

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=90891852&p=9x89z558
The value of music sales in the Republic declined 20% in 2003 as consumers opted for the internet over high street stores.

The Irish Recording Music Association (IRMA) said provisional figures for 2003 show that Irish consumers spent €108.5m on CDs, records and cassettes, a sharp slump from sales of €135.9m reported in 2002.

The industry believes that sales of CD's on the internet, greater price competition and illegal copying of CDs are the main factors haemorrhaging sales.

IRMA is to step up a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers posed by downloading music illegally using the internet later this month.

The association is planning to write to companies and universities warning them that if they allow staff to download music illegally, they will be prosecuted.



what to do? what to do?

has anyone ever tried that ipod thing?

what if they made the CDs cheaper?

what if they started an air campaign on Grokster's offices?

mr_angry

I'm delighted with this news (apart from the inevitable criticism of file-sharing). I will continue to buy all my CDs on play.com until Irish Retailers start charging the same price. Until then, fùck the lot of them.

Lemming

Originally posted by ²°°³webkev²°°³

The industry believes that sales of CD's on the internet, greater price competition and illegal copying of CDs are the main factors haemorrhaging sales.

I don't have the url handy - would need to dig it up, but went along the lines of the actual cost of illegal music downloads/cd copying is in the region of 1% of the total revenues in a year of the RIAA and their parasitic ilk. They also fail to mention such other more important factors like ramping down cd production in the last couple of years since they had a massive supplies from over-production in previous years. Hence "less cd's being made/sold" gets trotted out.

IRMA is to step up a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers posed by downloading music illegally using the internet later this month.

F.U.D.
for an example see Dubyah Bush & the american "fear factor".

I could extoll the dangers of flicking a lightswitch or plugging your hi-fi in ....... but I wont.

All this current shameful tirade basically amounts to is "WAHHH WAHHHHH me no likey dis interweb thingy - I don't understand it"

what to do? what to do?

take /ANY/ music industry association dialog on sales/internet/cds with an EXTREME amount of salt. They [the groups] are, and have been shown to be, full of total sh*t.

what if they made the CDs cheaper?

But the cd's are cheaper. Online .........
Not our fault of HMV & Virgin won't price-match.

honru

They portray sales of CDs on the internet like it is a bad thing. Whether its the artists or the IRMA that matter, it seems like its hard to please everyone.

Doctor J

Music was 20% worse this year. Sucky sucky music. The only redeeming thing was Led Zep's DVD and live triple CD.

If they put out good music, people will buy it. Instead they try to ram crud down our throats. Long live home-recording.

projectmayhem

the definative guide to modern music:

most of it is pure sh*te
if it's good, get it cheap online
if you like one or two songs, or wish to "sample" an album, visit kazaa, winmx, dc++ or whatever
don't goto the highstreet.

sceptre

The other thing is that apparently in the past few years people have finally completed replacing their nasty old elpees with those natty new CD things. It's been a small but significant part of the market until recently.

Oh yeah, most of the music being promoted these days is utter crap.

Helix

Originally posted by sceptre
The other thing is that apparently in the past few years people have finally completed replacing their nasty old elpees with those natty new CD things. It's been a small but significant part of the market until recently.

Oh yeah, most of the music being promoted these days is utter crap.

i think youll find vinyl sales have increased in the last 5 years

sceptre

Originally posted by Helix
i think youll find vinyl sales have increased in the last 5 years

Yes they have. It's largely a different market to the people who are replacing their old stock of LPs though. I should have tossed audio tape on to the pile as well as tape first exceeded vinyl sales in 1983.

Obviously there are people who swear by vinyl (I've a brother who falls into that category). Over the past half decade, vinyl sales have moved from virtually nothing to virtually something.

Robbo

Music Sales up 7.6% in the UK.

James R

I think its as much the artists' fault tbh.

When was the last time a decent album was actually released? I mean one like years ago when it contained hit after hit after hit not 1 cool track, 2 fairly decent and 7 ****e.

With the odd exception here and there this hasn't happened much of late and maybe if there were more albums like these then people would buy them.

Vlad Drac

The last 2 nights I have noticed a dramatic decrease on cd's available from Play.com. No longer do they have loads of back catalogue stuff available in 24 hours. Infact they don't sell anything by loads of bands i tried searching for, including stuff stuff you can't find in record shops or insanely priced stuff in HMV and other high street stores.

I was wondering why this was and think this news might have somthing to do with it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3380307.stm

Could this be the end of Play.com and Cdwow???

I really do hope not, because these sites are one of the main reasons for buying cd's

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

uberwolf

has anyone seen a breakdown of these figures? I'd be interested in seeing if falling single sales where in best part responsible for this and that in fact album sales have risen. 3singles = 1 album in €'s. Spice girls are probably solely responsible for this, they released entire albums one by one.

seamus

I too would be interested in where they got these figures.
How do they define where music sales take place in Ireland? That is, if they only count over-the-counter sales in stores, then they're not exactly taking an accurate picture of how much Irish consumers spent on music.
At the end of the day, if IRMA represent artists, then purchases over the web should be added to their sales figures, not removed.

And in case they haven't noticed, sales have dropped in almost all sectors. I'm pretty sure the alcohol industry would have a tough time blaming their similar sales drops on downloading or buying over the web :rolleyes:

Considering the massive boom in recent years, and hundreds of one hit wonders who were made millionaires overnight in the last few years, I consider the 20% drop a beginning of a return to normality. Can we have a comparison of this year's music sales with say, 1993? I can bet this year's is still 100's of millions of € above normal.

sceptre

Originally posted by uberwolf
Spice girls are probably solely responsible for this, they released entire albums one by one.

Michael Jackson's Bad had ten tracks (11 on the CD) and yielded 11 singles. Spice Girls never quite went that far.

Originally posted by seamus
I too would be interested in where they got these figures.
How do they define where music sales take place in Ireland? That is, if they only count over-the-counter sales in stores, then they're not exactly taking an accurate picture of how much Irish consumers spent on music.

I would guess that IRMA are using their own figures gleaned from IRMA members. I'm not sure if even the likes of DMGDirect (based in Ireland) have their figures included in the total - I doubt it somehow.

Bottom line though is that music isn't as good as it used to be. And not in that old fogie "when I was young..." type of way either - as smiaras mentioned many new acts that manage to shift half a million copies of their first single (Hearsay come to mind) don't appear to have any longevity. Without something to sell in the same way TV series are syndicated (in other words, buying the new Blur album because you liked their first (or last) one) it's only costing record companies more in the long run. Of course new artists get paid less royalties as a rule so perhaps they like the extra few bucks or the extra control over youngsters who don't know any better. There's only so many times you can re-release Bob Dylan and Elvis compilations before sales drop a little.

Helix

Originally posted by seamus
hundreds of one hit wonders who were made millionaires overnight in the last few years

i work in the industry, and i can safely say there is NOBODY who makes millions overnight

gurramok

i work in the industry, and i can safely say there is NOBODY who makes millions overnight

Certainly not the majority of artists who make their money anyway by touring.
Cd sales dont make them millionaires, it makes the label bosses millionaires.

The sooner the better that the labels are cut out of distribution the better.
Direct selling to fans by artists whether its electronically or not is the better way.

monument

Originally posted by ²°°³webkev²°°³
has anyone ever tried that ipod thing?

Don't until Apple get their act together (if they have not all ready), the built-in battery is in the current model braking down some time after the warranty ends, leaving people to pay something like £100 to replace it by sending it back to Apple.

Creative Labs have a new digital music player which is reported to be worth a look, and at least technical better for less. Like the iPod it comes in an upper and basic version.

Robbo

Originally posted by monument
Don't until Apple get their act together (if they have not all ready), the built-in battery is in the current model braking down some time after the warranty ends, leaving people to pay something like £100 to replace it by sending it back to Apple.

Apparently a load of preening zeitgeist chasing iPod owners in the States are launching a class action against Apple due to the battery fiasco. TBH, the battery life on an iPod is quite poor when compared to the Creative Zen.

Replacement batteries can be had from third parties for $50. Of course this would invalidate the warranty...

Back on topic, CDWow are now adding €3 to the price of CDs in a Tony Soprano style "tribute" to IRMA.

Mutant_Fruit

Bah, if the music that was released this year was 20% better, or if the cd's were 20% cheaper, or if 20% of the one hit artists that happened over the last year never happened, the figures would have been better for cd sales.

As it is, all thats coming out is american manufactured music. To heck with the lot of it! These record companies seem to be reeling in the money, and so are HMV etc (anyone see the queues 20-30 people long at christmas time?). If they just economised and reduced some prices instead of overcharging and employing easily breakalbe "copy protection" sales would rise.

Its just too expensive to go out and buy new cd's in ireland. I get everything online nowadays.