Music sharing doesn't kill CD sales, study says

Found on CNet News on Monday, 29 March 2004
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A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.

"We find that file sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales," the study's authors wrote. "While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."

Even in the most pessimistic version of their model, they found that it would take about 5,000 downloads to displace sales of just one physical CD, the authors wrote. Despite the huge scale of downloading worldwide, that would be only a tiny contribution to the overall slide in album sales over the past several years, they said.

The Recording Industry Association of America was quick to dismiss the results as inconsistent with earlier findings.

That's not the first study pointing out that sharing is not the reason for de decline. Influences like higher prices for albums, lower quality and mainstream concentration are never mentioned when the industry whines about their losses.