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krj
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The Sixteenth Napster Item
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Oct 1 18:08 UTC 2003 |
I'm still obsessive; this item is back.
Napster the corporation has been destroyed, but the Napster paradigm
continues. This is another quarterly installment in a series of weblog
and discussion about the deconstruction of the music industry and
other copyright industries, with side forays into
"intellectual property, freedom of expression, electronic media,
corporate control, and evolving technology," as polygon once
phrased it.
Several years of back items are easily found in the music2 and music3
conferences, covering discussions all the way back to the initial
popularity of the MP3 format.
Linked between the Agora and Music conferences.
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| 151 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 151:
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Oct 1 18:12 UTC 2003 |
Lies, damn lies, and statistics: :)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6895800.htm
"Music fans cut back on free file swapping"
Quote:
>> Kazaa usage has fallen 40 percent since the spring, when the
>> Recording Industry Association of America began suing students who ran
>> on-campus file-swapping networks. Kazaa, the most popular
>> file-swapping service, had 17.4 million U.S. unique visitors in March,
>> according to Nielsen//NetRatings, a consulting company that monitors
>> Web traffic. In August, Kazaa users had dropped to 10.4 million, and
>> the numbers are still falling. <<
Other commentators point out that the Neilsen numbers measure June
through August, when University students go home, and they report an
uptick in early September and steady traffic since then.
((What is Nielsen measuring, exactly? Do Kazaa users have to check in
with the home site when they start the software?))
At Cnet's Download.com site: the number of Kazaa downloads for the
last four weeks, from memory:
2.7 million, 2.6 million, 2.4 million, 2.4 million.
That's a 10% falloff, but nothing as huge as Nielsen is claiming for
traffic to the central Kazaa site.
(I really gotta start logging that number.
Week ending Sept. 28: 2,424,272 downloads)
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goose
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response 2 of 151:
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Oct 1 20:47 UTC 2003 |
A teenager close ot me informed me the other day that he was done with Kazaa
becasue he had all the music he ever wanted now. Then a couple days later
he went to t the music store and bought a couple brand new releases.
Odd behavior from a kid who has spent the last year and a half downloading
about 3000 songs.
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mcnally
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response 3 of 151:
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Oct 1 20:57 UTC 2003 |
I think the saddest part of that is that "all the music he ever wanted"
was only 3000 songs.
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goose
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response 4 of 151:
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Oct 1 21:37 UTC 2003 |
Yep. But maybe I'm strange because I have a couple thousand records, a couple
thousand CDs, and several hundred cassettes...not to mention the 45s...boy
do I have a lot of 45s....
Now that I read what I posted in #2, I wasn't trying to point out that after
he proclaimed he had all the music he wanted he then added to it by buying
new CD's, but rather it surprised me that even though he was an avid
downloader who at one point stated he'd never buy a CD again...he went out
and bought a CD by someone on the day it became available.
Can anyone understand 17 year olds, other than other 17 year olds? ;-)
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tod
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response 5 of 151:
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Oct 1 22:47 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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gull
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response 6 of 151:
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Oct 2 18:15 UTC 2003 |
A decline in file trading is one way of measuring success for the RIAA.
But it won't help them unless it's accompanied by an uptick in music sales.
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krj
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response 7 of 151:
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Oct 2 21:02 UTC 2003 |
CD sales have rocketed upwards since the lawsuits were filed.
Last night I stopped at a Borders to peek at Billboard, which carries
the weekly Soundscan CD sales numbers in their print edition.
The RIAA's 261 lawsuits were filed on September 8, and the Billboard
dated Sept. 27 contains sales data for the week ending Sept.14 -- not
quite one full week after the lawsuits hit the news.
Sales week ending Sept. 14: 10,239,000
Sales same week, 2002: 9,947,000
So, year-ago sales were up 2.9% for the week following the RIAA lawsuits.
Now, sales were up for the week ending Sept. 7, too, at
10,111,000; so sales were already running high before the
filing of the suits.
Today's USA Today reports that Big Music is on a roll. I assume this
story represents Soundscan data for the week ending Sept. 28.
Sales for the week are 12.5 million CDs, up 17% from the same week in
2002. It's the third consecutive week of rising sales. My guess,
from looking at the Billboard sales graphs last night, is that this
was the best week for Big Music sales in two years.
"The gains likely have more to do with all the hot arrivals than the
clampdown on the Internet's illegal music traders." Outkast, Dave
Matthews, Limp Bizkit and R. Kelly lead the parade of happy sellers.
But there is nothing here to suggest that the RIAA's interests are
not being served by the lawsuits, and nothing to suggest that a mass
consumer boycott is looming.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2003-10-01-music_x.htm
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tpryan
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response 8 of 151:
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Oct 7 00:43 UTC 2003 |
I would agree that it more a function of who is releasing
CDs at this time this year compared to this time last year.
Maybe the 17 year old is separating music that was always
there (before he became aware of it) and what is arriving in the
record store within his purchase power lifetime--it's his music.
/tpryan raises his hand as another with a good size 45, LP and
CD collection.
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