When Madonna sang "music makes the people come together" she was behind the times.
A better song these days would probably be Frankie Goes To Hollywood's When Two Tribes Go To War.
Although file sharing via peer-to-peer networks has been dealt a succession of blows by courts around the world, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in collaboration with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has identified internet downloads as the reason behind diminishing CD sales.
A RIAA and PwC survey said:
"Illegal internet downloading is displacing sales and helping explain a seven per cent drop in CD shipments and a 69.9 per cent increase in counterfeit/ optical disc seizures."
There's no real explanation why internet downloads should spur disc seizures but the two organisations said the survey's fundings "decisively debunk the theory that stealing music online is somehow good for the music business".
Among people who said their downloading had increased over the last six months, 41 per cent said they were purchasing less music now compared to 19 per cent who said they were purchasing more.
RIAA president Cary Sherman said although other factors like the decline in consumer spending had played a role illegal downloading was the main culprit in the drop in sales.
This is a bit confusing because, earlier this month, Forrester Research concluded MP3 downloads were good for the music business.
Forrester said the slump in music sales in the United States had been caused by other factors, such as increased competition from video games and DVDs and, interestingly, from the limited playlists rotated by commercial radio stations.
Forrester even said the music industry had good prospects if it was smart enough to embrace downloads.
Perhaps this is what HMV has in mind with its new online music service. For £4.99 a month, subscribers to the company's web site can choose from a catalogue of almost 100,000 individual tracks.
The price allows users to rent 50 tracks a month, listen live to up to 500 or buy recordings of five songs by copying them on to a CD with their computer.
Listening to His Master's Voice might just make sense because file downloading is not going to go away.
As the Monkees raved: "I'm a believer".
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