The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reported yesterday that music shipments
during the first half of 2001 fell to $5.9 Billion compared to $6.2 Billion during the
first half of 2000, a change of 4.4 percent.
The RIAA once claimed that the prevalence of Napster would depress music sales and that
record companies would have made even more money were it not for Napster, despite music
sales being exponentially higher than ever before. But now that usage of Napster has dropped
off significantly and with music file sharing stifled, who will the RIAA blame now?
When will they realize that the popularity of Napster and other music file sharing services
were the cause of their increased music sales. These services helped introduce people to whole
new genres and artists which they otherwise would never have experienced.
Just goes to show that they can't have it both ways.
The RIAA represents the five major record lables -- Bertelsmann's BMG Entertainment,
EMI Recorded Musc, Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, and
AOL Time Warner's Warner Music Group.