CD sales drop, digital music jumps in 1st half '07

Sales in U.S. of digital music increase 60 percent, but it's not enough to offset decline in CD sales, according to new data.

The story "CD sales drop, digital music jumps in 1st half '07" published July 6, 2007 at 7:07 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[qwerty75]

If the RIAA really wants to know why

And not just blame it on "illegal" downloads, maybe they should look at the top sellers.

All are untalented hacks. But no, that can't be the reason for poor sales.

[bobby_brady]

Who are behind the RIAA curtain?

I'd like to know personally who are behind the RIAA corporate curtain. Who are the names? Whoever they are, I'd imagine they are simply a bunch of high school drop outs. I've never seen an organization run by a group of losers as the RIAA is run by.

At any rate, it's good to see them bleeding. After decades of ripping off the public and getting away with it, it's time the tables have turned.

Let's hope it's hurting them personally too.

[tgrenier]

go to a record store

Wow I still call them record stores. I went music shopping at a cd store for the first time years the other day. I had great fun. It was an FYE on Rt4 in Paramus NJ. They have a large selection and I picked up some used bargains with a gurantee. I really liked flipping through the CD's and picked some stuff I did not know existed.

I went right and ripped them to my PC and then synched to my non-ipod. Now I own the CD's as back up. Most of my digital music collection comes from CD's I own. I have not downloaded since the original napster shut down. Boy was that a fun time to be a pirate. The selection available could not be matched. Coincidentally 90% of what I did download was freely tradeable or stuff from CD's I owned.

Get business out of the music business and we'll have better choices and more musicians making a living play/writing great music.

Go "record" shopping while you still can.

Tom

[sethwr]

Wow

you have no idea how NOT true that is... services like itunes and emusic especially have made it far easier for a variety of artist to make a living especially the ones that aren't backed by some multi billion dollar record company conglomerate... where you can go to a record store and browse through 30,000 albums that are all marked Warner, BMG, or Universal and rarely preview them to see if you like them - you go go to emusic and preview all music from a catalog twice the size and from obscure artists that aren't already played 50 times a day on each radio station...

of course i do agree that we need to support these artists by purchasing their music rather than stealing...

[skeptik]

Dear sirs

Bad news:
digital downloads are never going to completely replace the "lost revenue" (who lost it, where did it go, where was it seen last, are you sure you didn't just misplace it?).
And here's a newsflash for you:
There is no reason why they ever should. Customers used to have to pay the $16.99 price of the whole CD to buy the one track they liked. The whole attarction to the download model is not convenience (sure it's nice), not format (who can't rip a CD?) but the ability to purchase a single track. Look at your stats, how many people purchase the entire album these days?

If you will stop thinking in terms of being a service, entitled to X amount of dollars from each consumer every month and start acting like an industry based on selling a product to the consumer, you'll undoubtable come to the conclusion that offering the customer a product they want at a price they consider fair (and forego suing them when they say "no thanks" or "just browsing")is an extremely logical business model. If you hike up your skirts, grow a set and actually try that business model, I have no doubt you'll find it's a very viable business model as well.
People like music. That's been proven for decades. What people hate is your confrontational attitude of hypocrisy and self-entitlement.
You've been a bunch of pompus ******** ripping off everybody from the creators to the consumers for a very long time. Yes, we hate you. But collectively, we have a short memory and you have every opportunity to change your ways. (Or die as a business.)
Goodluck.

"Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew 23-24)

[Edna Abad]

Norah Jones and her latest single released as an MP3

Norah Jones and EMI / Blue Note had decided to releases Norah's
previous single through Yahoo as an MP3, even though there is
significant risk of continued piracy. However, sales continue to
remain strong as we have seen fans very pleased with no DRM and
the capability to play the music from any device that exists, such as
desktops, iPods or cell phones.