Info/Law

The Washington Post reports that despite a decline in compact disc revenue of 13% last year, the RIAA is upbeat. Huh? Isn’t this the same RIAA that’s always portraying copyright-infringing downloads by college students as the death knell of the music industry? And how does this oddly happy vibe fit with the deal between Apple and EMI to introduce higher-quality, DRM-free music? (At a 30% markup, but still.)

Deducing the effects of unlawful music sharing on the recording industry is hard – the labels, which are often owned by larger corporate conglomerates, often obfuscate their revenue streams. The number of CDs shipped to retailers is also a number prone to abuse – release fewer albums, or simply ship fewer CDs into the distribution chain, and you reduce this metric. As a practical matter, it’s hard to believe that downloads don’t displace some sales. The question is, how many?

So, I’m curious to know what you think. What metric should we use to measure the effects of downloading – to see whether the RIAA should be Eeyore or Pangloss? Revenues? Albums produced? Albums released? Marketing budget? Average home price in Malibu?

Filed under: Copyright, Digital Media, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, Music, RIAA