More on Downloading Not Affecting CD Sales
from the Harvard University Gazette: Beth Potier’s article covers Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee and University of North Carolina economist Koleman Strumpf’s research in detail.
“… the study found that for the most popular albums – the top 25 percent that had more than 600,000 sales – file sharing actually boosts sales. For every 150 songs downloaded, the study showed, sales jumped by one CD. For the least popular 25 percent of the sample, ‘we found a more pronounced negative effect,’ says Oberholzer-Gee. Despite predictions that the Internet would level the playing field of the music industry, giving consumers equal access to obscure, independently produced artists as to chart-topping pop darlings, music downloads parallels music sales.
‘When you look at what the music people are sharing online, it’s very much like looking at radio,’ he says. Not coincidentally, the early days of music radio brought similar fears that consumers would not purchase records they could listen to for free.”
Potier writes that the Recording Industry Association of America rejects the research and sticks to its belief that illegal downloading is ruining CD sales.
