US downloads beat CD sales
Complete story available at the BBC

Music fans in the US are buying almost twice as many singles in digital form over the internet as they are on CDs from stores.

Some 7.7 million tracks were bought and downloaded since the end of June - compared with four million CD singles sold, Billboard magazine reported.
But some say online and CD single sales cannot be compared because so few singles are now released on CD.

Record companies have cut CD single releases because of falling sales, but fans can choose from 500,000 songs for $0.99 (£0.60) each on some internet services.

In the week ending 26 October, 857,000 songs were sold over the internet - compared to just 170,000 in record shops, Billboard said.

The digital sales had a "symbolic significance" because they marked the music industry's move to digital operations, Sean Ryan, vice president of music at RealNetworks, said.

"Selling individual songs as an offline strategy wasn't working all that well, but online it can be a huge hit," he said.

Official sales tracking body Nielsen SoundScan began tracking download sales in the last week of June.

This is off-topic but is relevant to our cause. I posted this on a different article, but wanted to make sure I get some feedback. These are just suggestions.

Can we all sign a petition and give it to the Justice Department? It seems like their price fixing and non-profit status alone is justification for an investigation.

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Anti-RIAA
Date: November 4, 2003 @ 9:52 AM
Another idea I just had. Hear me out....

I am also active in drug law reform, and their websites have the capability to send out emails to all their subscribers about political issues, and allow you to send a pre-written (which you can customize) fax to your reps online. It would be great if we could do that here.

Now to be on-topic. The ability to only buy the couple of good songs off each record you want will greatly cut into the profits of the big 5. I'm surprised they are doing it.

I don't care how good a song is. I won't buy one song from them. Ever.

I fear that petitions and letters to congress and the press will have no more effect. I'm going to make a prediction (thought I have no facts to back it up, just a gut feeling)
the DMCA, FTAA etc will lead to a point that by time the masses realize they've been duped and their rights have been taken away there will be protests equal to what happened in the 60's. and like the 60's we still won't be taken seriously by the media or the government untill it gets to a melt down point. after that. who know's what will happen. Congress won't listen until then.

There are already a lot of good petitions out there ....

What we need to do now is get our strongest points across in a few of the major media periodicals like Wall Street Journal, Time, US News, or even local newspapers.

Easier said than done, I realize.

compmore -- its dismal but I have to agree... HOWEVER that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. I (and as many friends as I can get to do it) write as many in public office as we are able with our opinions, and our emphasis on how important it is that copyright law BE REFORMED, and although I'm not sure that it helps, it sure as hell doesn't hurt.

thefirstnutzo I agree "never give up, never surrender"

I wonder what kind of profiles they are making for the users of this "New Market".

How long will it be before they start sending advertisement that is paticular and crafted for those individuals.

I see a trend that is going to turn decent human beings into robots, cattle, sheep...

It really isn't about the money, I can prove that on paper. It is all about controll.

If you liked that song, you are going to love this, and it is brand spanking new!

If you act now, you will get this song for free, and this paticular song is also free of DRM, so you can share as much of it as you like with the RIAA's blessings! You've earned it, because you are such a good customer.

I keep thinking of rewards to credit users.

Does anyone agree with me, in the opinion, that since the RIAA is getting money from downloaded singles, that it is unfair they are getting paid twice when someone who downloaded the single burns it to a cd? They get a cut from all blank cd sales. If they get paid from downloading singles, they should not get the blank cd profit.

Ein-Tier, I totally agree,

We paid them a royalty for the Cd-burner, and the blank Cd. I think that everything that happens after that transaction took place is none of the RIAA's or anyone elses buisness. It is your computer, it is your house. It should be upto you to decide what can and could go on there.

The RIAA members should be grateful that anyone shares any of the crap they are spending millions to promote. These people are actually willing to promote this crap for free. The RIAA should count this as a blessing.

they have the mafia mentality. they want to squeeze every cent they can out of their product. yes ein-tier I whole heartedly agree

"US downloads beat CD sales"

While George undoubtedly meant "US Singles downloads beat CD Singles sales," this is still kind of a big whoopdie-ding-dong. I haven't known or seen anyone buy a CD Single since, well, since ever. Who spends $5 for a single and a crappy remix?

"We paid them a royalty for the Cd-burner, and the blank Cd"
Are you in Canada, because there is no CD-burner royalty in the U.S., nor is there any royalty on blank CD-Rs which are just as good as Audio CD-Rs (there is a small royalty on Audio CD-Rs).

"They get a cut from all blank cd sales."
No, they don't.

"The RIAA members should be grateful that anyone shares any of the crap they are spending millions to promote. These people are actually willing to promote this crap for free."
I have a feeling (but no evidence) that most of the downloaded singles are 'catalog' or old singles that have stood the test of time, not the new Britney or Christina Aguilera singles. Time will tell.

Peace.

I also have a feeling that allot of the 'legaly" downloaded singles are older ones, mainly due to the fact that if it isn't hip/ popular, it doesn't make it very far on a p2p network if you know what i mean.

What was the entire point to having Audio CD-Rs any ways? I know for the RIAA to get more of our money, but did they ever have any advantage over CD-Rs? I mean Audio CD-Rs can'te even be used for a data CD in most cases, but a normal CD-R can be, I just thought it was odd.

Thanks for the dose of reality, fatchuck. However, I think there is a tax on stand alone burners, which I bet none of these posters own.

"Record companies have cut CD single releases because of falling sales"

This is a load of garbage. CD singles were cut because of the fear that they were cannabilizing cd sales and because they wanted to force the consumer to buy the whole cd. This philosophy came back to bite them in the ass with the rise of p2p.

mroop I have to agree with you.

mtekk good point, Most of the songs I've download were not avaliable for sale so I'd like to know how my downloading hurt their sales. BTW I don't download RIAA music any longer. part of the boycott

I know this is off topic, but apparently I am too handicapped to figure out how to email this site.

U.S. Government - AP
FCC OKs Anti-Piracy Tool for Internet
Tue Nov 4, 5:06 PM ET
Add U.S. Government - AP to My Yahoo!

By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The government on Tuesday approved an anti-piracy mechanism to make it harder for computer users to illegally distribute digital TV programs on the Internet.



In its order, the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites ) told makers of digital television receivers that by July 1, 2005, their models must recognize an electronic marker that broadcasters can embed in their programs to limit piracy.

raoulduke1
could you list the online source as best you can please>? I want to look at this more.
Thanks.
~Code

Its a link off of Drudge. I think its Yahoo. By the way how do I email you guys, I always get some sort of error. You can email me at the email I have on my account as well.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20031104/ap_on_go_ot/digital_tv_piracy_1

Code, I submitted that article to this site about three hours ago. haven't seen it yet I like the line that says they have to protect free tv. (not an exact quote) maybe it's me but they are trying to stop free downloading to protect free tv??

compmore,

How do we submit articles and info? everytime I try to email I get:

Not Found
The requested URL /contact/index.php was not found on this server.

Apache/1.3.28 Server at www.boycott-riaa.com Port 80


what gives?

whats stupid about that tv thing is you cannot, ever, stop piracy. Thinking that you may be able to discourage a few is even stupider, because when one cracks the code, he lets everybody else get it.

stupid, stupid, people

fatchuck -- It was the BBC's headline

And what this article doesn't point out is that last year, there were only 1 million CD singles sold.

raoulduke1 at the top of the page move your cursor to news. a drop down box will appear. click on submit

tasadar24 ITS NOT PIRACY

One statement sums it up, I'm done with the RIAA and it's products so whatever they do I don't care, it's all irrelivent to me.

Justin - its more than just the RIAA... they are just the sword. We need to attack the body, the CONCEPT of there BEING laws that ALLOW them to get away with this stuff. THAT is the issue, they are just a venue OF that, if we JUST get rid of the RIAA a new company will arise and do the SAME THING unless we change the laws.

"We paid them a royalty for the Cd-burner, and the blank Cd"
Are you in Canada, because there is no CD-burner royalty in the U.S., nor is there any royalty on blank CD-Rs which are just as good as Audio CD-Rs (there is a small royalty on Audio CD-Rs).

They way I came to understand it fat chuck, is you do pay the RIAA a small tax on blank cdr and cd burners, but I may be wrong, Code you want to reflect on this

When I purchased this console, it was packaged with a compact disc recorder/rewriter, Philips 8X/4X/32X CD-R/RW [Part #5501496]. Was the RIAA paid a royalty from the manufactures of this device? Although this device does not prevent serial copying, it was marketed to me and packaged with software, CD/RW Software Easy CD Creator v4.02a, Direct CD v3.01a, UDF Reader v1.01(014). It is certain to me, as it was promised at the time of purchase, that this console renders a digital copy of any purchased audio disk onto a blank audio disk at once, from one drive to another. And this has been demonstrated on several occasions over several years.

At the time I purchashed this console, it was made plain to me that is was bundled with hardware and software for the very convient purpose of making a copy of a disk. This console was also further bundled with a Dimond RIO MP3 player and software, and a T10/100 card for immediate broadband access.

Why didn't the artist recieve a royalty from this console? More importantly, why does the RIAA want to subpeona individual users instead of seeking out larger suits against the people that enabled those users.

I still see the bill HR2517 as an assault on the availability of voters rights, I just didn't realize I was already standing in the trap.