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Originally Posted by mynameisjim
lol at the studies that show downloading increases sales.
Make a graph of the growth in torrent music filesharing compared to record label revenues. I bet it looks an awful lot like a big "X".
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A big part of it is also the shift to a digital singles business model. It used to be if you had a hit song on the radio and a fan wanted the song they had to shell out for the full CD. So the label knew a hit song would bring in big revenue. I once had a record label A&R guy (back when I was a music journalist) tell me that a top ten hit single would mean about 15-18 million in revenue for the label. Now instead of buying a record for $12-$18 you can just pay 99cents and get the one song you like.
I'm not saying downloaders haven't hurt labels, they have and I think they have hurt them badly, but the availability of he single and the fact that the record labels are focused on hit songs, not good records has hurt them as well.