CD burning is the enemy not illegal file sharing

[Conquest10]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050813/ap_en_mu/music_retailers

Give me a break.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer Fri Aug 12,10:22 PM ET

Music copied onto blank recordable CDs is becoming a bigger threat to the bottom line of record stores and music labels than online file-sharing, the head of the recording industry's trade group said Friday.

"Burned" CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing networks, said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive for the
Recording Industry Association of America.

The data, compiled by the market research firm NPD Group, suggested that about half of all recordings obtained by music fans in 2004 were due to authorized CD sales and about 4 percent from paid music downloads.

"CD burning is a problem that is really undermining sales," Bainwol said in an interview prior to speaking before about 750 members of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in San Diego Friday.

Copy protection technology "is an answer to the problem that clearly the marketplace is going to see more of," he added.

Album sales in the North America are down about 7 percent this year compared with a year ago, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Yet the recording industry has seen a lift from online music sales, which when factored in with album and sales of CD singles increased overall music sales through July to 21 percent over last year.

The focus on CD burning Friday was welcomed by Alayna Hill-Alderman, who said she has seen music CD sales slide in recent years while sales of blank recordable CDs have soared.

"We are feeling the decline in our store sales, especially with regard to R&B and the hip-hop world," said Hill-Alderman, co-owner of Record Archive, a two-store company operating in Rochester, N.Y. "It's all due to burning. We've lost tremendous amounts of those sales to flea markets and bodegas."

After experimenting with copy-protected CDs in Europe and Latin America in recent years, some record labels have begun releasing albums in North America with similar copy restrictions. The CDs typically allow users to burn no more than a handful of copies.

Velvet Revolver's "Contraband," released last year, was equipped with such copy-protection technology and grabbed the top sales spot in its debut week.

Some saw that as a sign music fans didn't mind CDs with copy restrictions. But other releases since, such as the latest Foo Fighters album, have sometimes spawned fan complaints that the restrictions go too far or create technology conflicts with portable audio devices.

Simon Wright, chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group International, which oversees the Virgin chain of music stores, said he's in favor of labels releasing more albums in a copy-protected CD format, regardless of the potential for consumer backlash.

"If, particularly, the technology allows two-to-three burns, that's well within acceptable limits and I don't think why consumers should have any complaints," Wright said.

[lumis]

Simon Wright, chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group International, which oversees the Virgin chain of music stores, said he's in favor of labels releasing more albums in a copy-protected CD format, regardless of the potential for consumer backlash.

that sounds like the type of thing someone would say right before a shitstorm that causes them to resign.

[yoda313]

Allowing two to three burns???

Once you make the audio cd you can just rip that to mp3. Don't they know anything???

[MOVIEGEEK]

"The focus on CD burning Friday was welcomed by Alayna Hill-Alderman, who said she has seen music CD sales slide in recent years while sales of blank recordable CDs have soared...We are feeling the decline in our store sales, especially with regard to R&B and the hip-hop world, said Hill-Alderman, co-owner of Record Archive, a two-store company operating in Rochester, N.Y. It's all due to burning. We've lost tremendous amounts of those sales to flea markets and bodegas."


What kind of logic is that?!
That's like saying car sales are down because auto parts sales are up.Could it be because the music sucks?

[shelbyGT]

you can just do the winamp workaround - just record your sound out. Tada!

[smearbrick1]

When are they going to realize the $20.00 for a single cd is too much? I can guarantee you that if they dropped prices of CDs to $9.99, they would sell like mad.

[shelbyGT]

Are they going to sell the "copy protected" cd's on iTunes? If so... burn a copy, and tada.

[ChrisX]

CD burning is the enemy not illegal file sharing


This is nonsense.

I buy my own music CDs for my own purposes and I backup a copy in the PC HDD on my own listening convenience.

I don’t buy copy protected CDs as they can’t play on some equipment including my PC as it won’t read the disc.

Anyway the CD burning doesn’t work here and I can only make Mp3 files to listen and this is all.

The record companies aren’t going broke all because of some making CDs or backing up music at home on private purposes.

This is all crap and the music industry is just whining over nothing.

[adam]

We've lost tremendous amounts of those sales to flea markets and bodegas.

Its obvious the article is talking about bootlegs not personal copies. Its showing that, of those CDs bootlegged, more come from hard copies as opposed to soft copies (downloads). I don't see what's so hard to believe about this. Why is it nonesense?

[yoda313]

They can't judge blank cds sales solely relating them to music. How many still use cdrs for data?? Or even vcd/divx. Just because blank cds have high sales volume doesn't mean they're being exlusively used for music copying.

[shelbyGT]

They can't judge blank cds sales solely relating them to music. How many still use cdrs for data?? Or even vcd/divx. Just because blank cds have high sales volume doesn't mean they're being exlusively used for music copying.

maybe not, but I'd be the majority that bestbuy or circuitcity sell to their consumers are for music more than others. that's just my opinion, though.

[SquirrelDip]

Yoda's right - there's so many other things to bootleg...

I think it may be hard for most North Americans to understand the extent of bootleg music cd's - in my experience we see very little on the streets in most cities here. Comparing to many Asian cities (for example) where the markets are full of venders flogging the bootlegs.

[adam]

They can't judge blank cds sales solely relating them to music.

Where did it say they did that? This was a statistical study which I'm sure encompassed many variables. The quote about CD sales declining and cdr sales increasing just came from some music store owner... It has no bearing on the study.

[yoda313]

I didn't say you said that. Thats just the implication they imply.

[adam]

It doesn't mention even one factor used in their formula, so I don't know what the implication would be. It just reported the results.

Give it a couple of weeks and RIAA will publish the factors and forumla used in the NPD study on their website. They always do.

[BJ_M]

decline in our store sales, especially with regard to R&B and the hip-hop world

maybe hip-hop is dead or dieing ? wouldn't that be something -- music tastes changing ... You see those HipHop cats running around with their bling bling on MTV showing off their cribs and wheels and you don't feel real sorry for them either (i KNOW most artists make bukas money - but still) .. Also artists (any) make almost nothing on those cd sales .. from 0 - 2.00 (very very rare) , avg is about 75 cents on a 20$ cd in most cases ... Alanis made much more as she paid for all the productions costs on Jagged Little Pill before she even signed a deal with Maverick .. so they gave her a high % instead of an advance (they thought they would come out ahead as usual) , so she got something like 4$ each cd and 3x the normal for airplay , both based on the GROSS , instead of the usual NET cost.. and made a killing ...



I guess burning cd's also killed disco



as pointed out -- cd's are WAY to expensive .. for the same price as a dvd (and you can just rent those) almost you get 3 minutes good , 44 minutes crap most of the time ..

[bazooka]

Slyck is saying that furry animals are now the culprit.

[SquirrelDip]

I guess burning cd's also killed disco

No... I think that was the bra burning... :P

[lordsmurf]

Yes.
CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes ... this is the root of all world evil.

How daft of me to think otherwise.

[AlecWest]

I think what's going on here is that the industry knows most politicians are bone-stupid about such things ... and can be easily swayed to (ahem) consider a possible "surcharge" on blank media which, of course, would be paid directly to the industry. They're just grooming politicians to consider a new cash-cow ... a cash-cow that would allow governments to also take a piece of the pie (for administrative expenses, of course).

[BJ_M]

we have that now in canada -- though the money seems to never get to the 'industry' .. the goverment just keeps it ...

and no seems sure how it is even collected ......

[SquirrelDip]

and no seems sure how it is even collected ......

Is it still collected??? On last count I thought it was $0.20 per CD - most shops sell blanks for $16 per 100.

[BJ_M]

i think it is - but not sure ..

but since you can buy cd's for less than 20cents .......

like i said -- no idea how its collected... you dont pay anything extra getting stuff shipped in from the usa

[SquirrelDip]

It's a very flawed system... Many legit businesses are (were anyway, haven't purchased from those shops in quite some time - why pay $5 for 10 disks when I can get 100 for $16) collecting the levy but at the same time many shops are not - and as you pointed out, it's not collected for imported media.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

It's ridiculous!, overpriced cd's are the cause of all this mess.

You can buy a 2-hour $200 Million dolar DVD movie for $14.99 at Walmart, but you can't get a (How much does it cost to create a cd?) 50 minute CD for less than $20.

Again... ridiculous!.

[ChrisX]

They can't judge blank cds sales solely relating them to music. How many still use cdrs for data?? Or even vcd/divx. Just because blank cds have high sales volume doesn't mean they're being exlusively used for music copying.

I still use the CD-RW just for backup computer data, not for music though.

Anyway, I don't copy my music into CD-R and I prefer as Mp3 in the HDD to listen.

I also use DVD-R and DVD-RW for recorded videos, not music either.

There is no levy or tax in Australia for pirating on blank media and just as well NO not here.

[RJ32]

I don't use either anymore, that is, I don't really burn cds for music anymore nor do I store mp3s on my hard drive. I prefer to stream music over rhapsody because I'm a huge music fan and it's much cheaper (than buying poor quality mp3s for a buck each) and much less time consuming than tracking things down over p2p. rhapsody is great btw I recommend you check it out if you're a big fan of music. www.rhapsody.com/freemusic they have a thing that allows 25 free streams each month. Let me know what you think of it.