Sources: RIAA budget will shrink soon

The budget for the music industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America, will soon shrink as the major labels reduce costs and their dependence on file-sharing lawsuits, industry insiders said Friday.

News.com Poll

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How successful were the RIAA's lawsuits in stemming music piracy?

Very successful - a win for the music industry
Didn't make much difference
Alienated consumers and hurt legit music sales

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Friday's startling news that the trade group representing the four largest music labels has declared an end to a long-running legal campaign against file sharing will mean a reduced role for the RIAA, which is coming up on its yearly budget review, according to a source close to the group.

But in a climate where digital music sales are growing, though not fast enough to make up for the losses from shrinking CD sales, the trade organization was already headed toward likely cutbacks. One source said that one of the top four labels has already begun making noise about lowering its contribution to the organization.

An RIAA representative declined to comment.

The RIAA has seen budget cuts for the past several years, and both sources said the organization isn't going anywhere. The group still lobbies Congress on behalf of the music industry and artist rights.

Now, with a less litigious agenda, perhaps the RIAA will need one or two fewer lawyers.

See also:
• RIAA drops lawsuits; ISPs to battle file sharing
• Copy of RIAA's new enforcement notice to ISPs
• Lawsuits or not, the RIAA still doesn't understand us
• RIAA president: 'No talk of blacklisting'

[Havoc70]

HAHA Finally they learn that suing their customers does not work...I hope to see all the RIAA members on the unemployment line soon..Ya greedy Lowlife scumbag losers

[thelemurking]

wonder which costs more, the lawyer fees, or the money they won from the lawsuits... methinks it twas the lawyers!

they probably can't afford to sue anyone anymore.

[karpenterskids]

Yeah, the numbers shown by the polls don't surprise me one bit...except perhaps than anyone at all voted that the lawsuits were "a win for the music industry".

[Willie Winkie]

I could not off-set the cost of my ISP bandwidth by downloading free content, I'd go back to dial-up.

[chuck_whealton]

You know, there's a couple lines in this article that discuss how "digital music sales are growing, though not fast enough to make up for the losses from shrinking CD sales."

Of course they're not.

Before digital music sales, customers were (in most instances) FORCED to purchase an entire CD, just to get the one or two songs they wanted.

I doubt digital music sales will EVER make up for CD sales, now that customers are no longer forced to purchase entire CDs.

Charles Whealton

[paulej]

But, in some cases people are still forced to buy the whole album. Browse Amazon's MP3 download area and you'll see. I simply refuse to buy a whole album, and I just wonder which is more costly: lost sales due to people buying singles or due to fewer album sales? And, who are these last ones demanding to sell the entire album? Is it a particular label or is this done artist by artist?

[tm_anon]

All it would take to make digital music AND CD sales go up is good music. Give me something I want to buy and I'll buy it. If I have to hunt down that one song I really like, can't buy a CD with more songs I really like and that one song costs more than I can afford, it doesn't make much sense to buy it, now does it? On the other hand, if more quality music gets produced, the prices could be dropped to a reasonable level which would allow more people to buy, meaning the artists would make more money then you add in streaming music supported by advertisements and fire the RIAA dimwits who can't get their acts together and suddenly the music industry is looking less like a joke.

[HlLLARY CLITON]

The RIAA will need a bailout