March 23, 2005 8:50 AM PST
Music sales rise in United States
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After years of decline, sales of recorded music and music-video products appear to be stabilizing in the United States.
The New York Times
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This fact is one of the main reasons that industry's connecting of the figures (apparent decline in sales in past years) with music piracy, has been disputed. Majority of the declines could be attributed to the better tracking, sale forecasting, and use of JIT (Just-in-Time) inventory process by retailers (they have better estimates of how much they can sell).
For example (these are just to ilustrate my point):
Year 2003: 1000 units shipped, 600 units sold.
The response from the RIAA "We're losing to piracy"
Year 2004: 900 units shipped, 750 sold.
RIAA "Piracy is impacting us EVEN MORE! Sue, Sue, Sue!" This in a year where they made MORE sales to consumers.
It's this kind of skewed logic that they present to politicians (along with a big assed campaign contribution) that in turns gives them more of a stranglehold on the internet, copyright, and our freedoms.
RIAA: Species DIE when they don't adapt in nature, but you've found a way to keep your prehistoric business model alive... congratulations on being dirtier than most mobsters and politicians.