Music industry revenue grows...
 

for the first time since 1999.

"Music sales grew last year for the first time since 1999, the Financial Times reports. According to trade association IFPI, which compiled industry figures for 2012, this slight increase in recorded music revenues was driven by digital downloads and subscription service fees.

These digital sales represented a third of 2012 global music revenues, worth $16.5 billion. With a 9 percent year-on-year growth, they made up for the 5 percent decline in physical record sales, resulting in a 0.3 percent overall increase. ?The global recording industry has moved on to the road to recovery,? said Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, quoted by the FT."

http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/02/...digital-sales/

Illegal music sharing down 17% in 2012 thanks to decent alternatives. Burning CDs down 44%. Hard drive swops down 25%. File lockers down 28%

http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/02/...ming-services/

They had it good, like porn, for years. They sold the same content on different media to people and gauged them. So much so, there was an EU wide inquiry into their overpriced shit.

They stuck their heads in the sand and pretended not to hear their customers, like porn, for years.

Then, finally they realised online was their future, now they are seeing the revenues from that work for them.

Lessons to be learned?

Discuss...

Places like HMV got away with daylight robbery for years. It's no loss to see them go.

The market has always been there. But customers know when they are getting ripped off...

Indeed. And if you can provide them a friction free legal alternative, they will take it.

rdio, spotify, rhapsody, etc.

Porn used to innovate, now we are behind the music industry. Speaks volumes.

"you watched belladonna, you might also like..."

discovery is the main reason I pay for rdio. i love finding new bands. There is soooo much porn, and I love belladonna stuff, as does my fiancee. I'd love to have a service to recommend stuff LIKE her stuff...

But there is nothing like that. Yet.

i would have to assume that having closed down all the mom and pop record stores helped those figures too.

I have not downloaded a song that I haven't paid for since the moment I discovered Spotify several years back. There is very little reason and it has allowed me to explore artists I wouldn't previously not have taken a risk on and therefore I buy stuff from both on their music and on their concerts.

Thank GODDESS for Spotify! And I even get royalties from the streamed plays. No complaints, here!

good for them....

I still buy CDs. :1orglaugh

I dunno if that theory holds true. And this is just another "theory", but you could also say that the slight increase, more like a bottoming, was due to the music industry's trade organizations dealing with piracy at a quantity level, instead of only targeting one or two sites a year for lawsuits.

http://www.google.com/transparencyre...f-America-Inc/

http://www.google.com/transparencyre...-Industry-Ltd/

http://www.google.com/transparencyre...ichting-BREIN/

Additionally, 2012, wasn't a great year for piracy with megaupload, oron, etc, it just seems that not as many new start ups were jumping into the "piracy industry". For sure, end users who see their file hosts and other sites shut down probably start looking at legal alternatives.

It's probably a combination of both theories. It's not enough to just make legal alternatives in my opinion. Think about adult tubes. There are companies that have made "legal alternatives", but customers already know about their favorite tube and for the most part stick there. Now if that tube started becoming less convenient because it constantly had a higher number of files removed, or was even shut down, of course customers are going to look at other options and include legal alternatives.

~Allison

There are still certain things that I prefer to have on cd. No shame there...

was that inflation adjusted? If not, they continued to decline.

i buy lots of vinyl

ok I will bite...
 

You continually suggest that the decline in people paying for access to pornography is the fault of the lazy industry, rather than the fault of those stealing content and then giving it away for free.

There will be some truth in this. But the fact is those producers who could never be accused of being lazy, and did give their customers a sound product at an attractive price, have still seen their businesses decimated by stolen porn distributed by tubes and lockers.

Membership sites were very popular indeed with the buying public. Unfortunately free porn has changed everything. Now the average punter simply does not see sex in the same way. In 10-15 years the porn landscape has gone from exceptionally restricted to complete saturation. The average punter will never pay for porn again.

So you imply that the porn industry needs to wake up and create new models where the public can consume their porn in new ways. You imply that cheap efficient delivery will bring the punters back.

Unfortunately that has already happend, the tube has been with us for some time. It did not work for 2 reasons. Firstly porn is not the same as music. Very few punters need to own their porn. The try before you by idea fails because the buying motivations for porn are very different to music. Porn buyers dont need to define themselves or belong to tribal groups as per the music buyer. Porn buyers dont throng together in huge groups in collective expressions of their admiration for the porn and its actors. (concerts) Music is simply a poor comparison to porn.

Secondly, even if you don't agree with my first reason, tubes and lockers will not result in increased sales for one simple reason.

THEY DON'T PAY FOR THE CONTENT.

I suppose the there is no argument here anyway. Porn has already got it's Spotify and it's itunes. We already know what the results are............

This is because the music industry has finally figured out how to make money online.

Years ago you had singers who refused to put their music online for sale. A few of them made videos about illegally downloading music and put them on Youtube, without understanding that the only way for us to listen to their music was to listen for free on Youtube. We couldn't buy music from certain groups online.

Now all of them are selling online on all platforms.

What are the results?

Tubes ?

More porn than you can shake a stick at. Every taste catered for. Ad funded. Accessable and easy to consume.

Result - huge reduction in paid for porn.

Result - huge reduction in porn production.

Porn is not music, and it is not film, the buying motivations are completely different.

Is it popular with the public ?, absolutely, but I cannot imagine that anyone here, or in porn production, will say that tubes and other free porn distribution channels, have been good for the industry.

Music has to stop SUCKING for me to buy anything past 1995. Two cents.