What planet are these guys on?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1690296,00.html
Internet music downloads double to hit 10m
By Adam Sherwin, Media Reporter
TEN million music tracks have been
downloaded this year, nearly double the
level for the whole of 2004, the music
industry announced yesterday.
A combination of court action against
illegal file-sharers and a surprise revival
in sales of 7in vinyl records has also
produced a 52.4 per cent increase in the
previously ailing singles market.
The British Phonographic Industry now
believes that more downloads are being
legitimately bought than are exchanged
illegally over the internet. But while
British artists are also making headway in
the American charts, CD album sales in the
UK declined by 1.7 per cent in the second
quarter of this year.
The fall was caused by a 14.2 per cent fall
in the compilations market, but the arrival
of Coldplay’s million-selling record X&Y and
the emergence of James Blunt, the former
Household Cavalry Guardsman who served in
Bosnia, is expected to reverse the decline.
Paid-for downloads have rocketed from
virtually zero in 2003 to ten million in the
first half of this year, with Apple’s iTunes
store still the predominant retailer.
Coldplay and Gorillaz are among the leading
bands who have placed new tracks on iTunes
weeks before their physical release.
But nostalgics can take pleasure in the
revival of the 7in single, with record
companies returning to vinyl as a
collector’s item snapped up by rock fans.
Sales of 7in vinyl singles approached 1.4
million units, a 64 per cent improvement
year-on-year and the best 12 months for the
format since 1998. The bestselling 7in
single in the year to March was a limited
edition reissue of Iron Maiden’s Number of
the Beast. Elsewhere the format is dominated
by a new generation of UK rock acts
including the Libertines, Babyshambles,
Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.
Artists who performed at the Live 8 concerts
received a sales boost, although retailers
said that the effect vanished after last
Thursday’s terrorist attacks.
Keane re-entered the charts at No 5 with
their album Hopes and Fears. Razorlight’s Up
All Night climbed 19 places to No 9, Mind
Body and Soul by Joss Stone was up 23 places
to No 16, and Hot Fuss by the Killers rose
11 places to No 11. In Time, the best of
REM, shot up 15 places to No 18. Pink
Floyd’s compilation Echoes was a new top 40
entry at No 19, while the Scissor Sisters
album re- entered at No 25.
James Blunt has finally toppled Coldplay,
reaching the No 1 album slot after 14 weeks
on the chart.
The ex-Captain’s album Back To Bedlam has
sold 500,000 copies.
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"The British Phonographic Industry now
believes that more downloads are being
legitimately bought than are exchanged
illegally over the internet."
If you say it's so it makes it so right? I
think it's the old stick your head in the
sand syndrome and spout BS in order to make
everyone believe the sky is green instead of
blue.
Mike (Shmoo)
W-B
DeadMan2003
ShadowMom
gdZiemann
