It’s a familiar story. CD sales for the last 6 years have been on a steady decline and the music industry has been blaming just about everyone – especially those engaged in file-sharing. The music industry contends there’s a direct correlation between failing CD sales and the continued growth of file-sharing.

The extent the music industry can blame file-sharing is a hotly contested debate. Rather than squarely pinning declining CD sales on file-sharing, alternative reasons have been steadily gaining ground. Leading these alternative reasons has been the cost of the CD and the quality of the music being presented.

With CDs priced well over $15, especially for new releases or top 40 artists, music fans find themselves with little other choice than to participate on P2P networks to find the music they like. Quality issues also arise, as it doesn’t help the music industry’s situation when radio stations are saturated with dubious “artists” such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera.

Substantiating these alternative reasons has been largely overlooked by the music industry’s PR campaign, especially by the IFPI (International Federation Phonographic Industry.) Often holding the P2P community in contempt, the music industry has never publicly confronted their pricing issues other than to justify them. However a new study by Ipsos Insight reveals the music industry may want to take a closer look at its business practices before it blames its own customers.

The study interviewed 963 adults about their music listening habits. Indeed, some aspects of the study support at least some portion of the music industry’s business model. For example, 52% of the participants found that 99 cents for a music track was a fair price, while 19% thought it was a bargain. Only 19% found it to be “too expensive.”

Although a majority found the 99 cent structure favorable, there was a considerable amount of distressing news for the music industry. When asked if the quality of music is “getting worse”, 58% of respondents felt this was the case. Only 24% felt the quality of music was improving.

Another serious concern for the music industry was the respondent’s attitude towards CD pricing, as an overwhelming majority (74%) felt prices were either very or somewhat expensive. Only 21% thought music CDs were either “not too expensive” or “not at all expensive.”

The results of the survey point to another concern for the music industry. While a majority (80%) consider downloading an unauthorized song “stealing”, only 61% “do not care much” if such works are personally downloaded. This suggests education efforts may be informing netizens that sharing unauthorized music may be stealing, but these efforts have yet to win over the hearts and minds of the online world.

The results of this survey support what has already been common knowledge; CD prices and the quality contain within continue to be a key reason for their decline. Online services such as iTunes have allowed declining sales to be offset, but only because they allow individuals to cherry pick the one or two good songs per album. iTunes may help offset declining sales, but it does nothing to confront the quality issues currently facing the music industry.

This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
File-Sharing/P2P Related :: Studies/Research

You can read the entire survey here.

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