Downloading music is killing the music industry

CDfreaks.com are reporting a article on the BBC
that the RIAA are saying that once again the downloading of music is
destroying the store music industry, full article is available by
clicking the read more link below

The impact of online piracy on
the US music business has been "devastating", says the head of the
Recording Industry Association of America, Cary Sherman.
He told a conference in London that a 31% decline in music sales
between 1999 and 2002 was primarily due to piracy.
"More music is being consumed than at any time in history, it's just
that less of it is being paid for," he said.
The industry is fighting back by licensing download services and taking
legal action against music pirates.
The RIAA is also backing a large-scale "educational campaign" including
public service adverts and targeting the university student market, a
major area of piracy.
Mr Sherman was speaking at this week's Financial Times New Media and
Broadcasting Conference in London.
Film file-sharing
Escalating online sales in the US suggest that lawsuits targeting
pirates are having an impact on peer-to-peer file-sharing of
copyrighted material.
Although legitimate online sales are up sharply, they still represent
only a fraction of what is being exchanged via the net.
Rob Sisco, president of Nielsen Music, said lawsuits by the RIAA have
rekindled sales, not by striking fear in music pirates but by educating
users.
The US film industry is also threatened by rampant internet piracy.
This has been made worse by the increased availability of broadband and
the imminent removal of technical barriers to moving and storing
massive amounts of content, said Dara MacGreevy of the Motion Picture
Association of America.
In 2003, Hollywood lost $3.5bn from hard goods piracy alone, while
internet piracy losses are harder to quantify, he added.
But despite piracy fears, analysts believe the future of the music
industry lies in online digital downloads.
Since the files can be easily transported and stored on a range of
devices, they have transformed the way people consume music.
Chris Gorog, head of the Napster music download service, believes
ventures like his will be highly profitable in the long-term.
He told the FT conference of his plans to expand from the US into
Europe this year, with the UK as the first entry point.
By 2008, one-third of music sales in the US and nearly 20% in Europe
will come in the form of downloads and streaming music over the
internet, building a multi-billion dollar business, according to a
recent study by consultancy Forrester Research. Source: BBC News