“Britain’s fledgling market for legal music downloads broke the 500,000 mark for the year this week, giving modest hope to a music industry battered by online piracy. Overall sales in the world’s third-largest music market fell 4.3 percent in value terms for the quarter to 212 million pounds ($390 million), according to figures released Wednesday by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI),” Reuters reports.
“Sales of CD singles plummeted by 32 percent during the first quarter to 12 million pounds from the same period a year ago, the latest sign that the once lucrative format may be all but dead,” Reuters reports. “The BPI, however, hailed the download data as an important milestone… The download data comes fresh on the heels of the launch of digital service Napster, which did not contribute figures to the tally, and as UK music fans eagerly await the arrival of Apple Computer Corp’s iTunes service. This time last year, there were virtually no legal downloads, BPI said.”
Full article here.
iTunes really needs to get on the ball in europe
er.. napster is there.. and… they eagerly await itunes.. lmao.. that’s like some nasty fat chicks coming to the party at 8.30pm…
“when’s the cute girls gonna show up!??!”
Europe really needs to get on the ball signing those contracts that iTunes has sitting waiting for them.
Is that a typo???
“fans eagerly await the arrival of Apple Computer Corp’s iTunes service”
what the hell were they smoking when they wrote that??!!!
CD Single sales are falling because people aren’t interested in singels any more. Charts are determined by things other than singles sales now, so the industry doesn’t push them so much. They didn’t make the insustry that much money anyway. They industry would probably prefer to have singles as downloads.
CD album sales have fallen in terms of value. That may be true, but actual numbers of CDs sold have been increasing in the UK. They’ve just not been able to sell them for as much, or they’ve been selling in bulk to supermarkets who sell them for �2-�4 less than a record store. They’re happy to make less profit per item because they have a small selection and sell truckloads of them. The actual amount paid to the records companies per item has probably not fallen that much, if at all.
The record companies would like you to think that illegal downloads are affecting them, but they’re still doing quite nicely.
And hey, if a business model is no longer effective, change or die. And if it’s not possible to change, die anyway. Welcome to the real world. I really don’t understand why they expect any particular sympathy or special treatment or worse, false protection from the natural market.
JJ,
What is wrong with saying “Corp”?
They’re using “Corp” in a weak attempt to legitimize that bogus lawsuit from Apple Corps against Apple Computer. Although I like some of their music, I hope the Beatles (or their greedy decendants) crash and burn on this one.
Apple Corp is the company that is owned by the Beatles, they keep sueing Apple for the name everytime Apple does anything remotely close to music (adding speakers to Macs, iTMS), since they dont own the Beatles catalog anymore that must be their only source of incomw, lmao.
The current lawsuit has to do with the iTMS and that people will confuse Apple Computer with Apple Corp, Apple Corp says they got all the rights to the name “Apple”, this kind of press dont help
Hywel,
That’s some interesting information you put out there, but where did it come from? I’d love to read more about that, where do you get your facts?
iTunes Music Store Europe will hold your balls
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We will have to wait for a month for that.
Apple/Apple lawsuit will be settled before I can say “darn”.
And we will have Beatles in our iPod�s
I think the Beatles suck anyway – I don’t want that shit on my ipod.
Anyone know how much a song is going for on Napster UK?
These facte were read in The Independent. I don’t have a copy and I don’t have a URL I’m afraid. And it’s perhaps been dressed up slightly with my own opinions.
The facts as I read them and recall them are that singles sales were down, album sales were up (something like 7% year on year), but revenue from album sales was down. They’re selling more, but selling them for less. This was attributed largely to the supermarkets sales which are lower price but higher volume.
I understand if you want to take this with a pinch of salt as I don’t have a reference. C’est la vie.
It’s also quite possible that I read this a year ago. it’s something I’m interested in though, so I paid attention at the time !
Here’s the BBC’s version of the report…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3391979.stm
Never mind this anyway
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Nokia (Company from Finland) playes this game with over 1.2 billion �uros every year. I hope that Bananas does something about it+GaySex
You all outside Finland have to thank all Finnish people everyday like ten times
Estonia has the best possible Tax system in ThE world!!
Is that an iPod in her hand?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040602/482/mad80306021652
Off topic:
The Beatles have lost the plot. They long ago became the “men in suits” they so despised. Pity really.
I wouldn’t have thought Paul, Ringo, Harrison family or Yoko really needed the money. For a group who told us all you need is love to become such capitalists is really amusing. Perhaps they meant the love of money?
Besides, what the hell have The Beatles done, musically or otherwise, in the past 30 years which is worthy of “forcing” Apple Computer to bow down and grovel for the use of the name “Apple”?
Last I knew, Apple Corps was a recording label, not a tech company. Oooh, I’m soooo confused. I thought The Beatles made the iPod!!!??
Btw, I think iTunes was spun off due to the Beatles lawsuit (amongst a few other reasons.)
Good typo though.
ps Steve, place that call to Paul/Ringo and sort this shit out.
Off topic:
The Beatles have lost the plot. They long ago became the “men in suits” they so despised. Pity really.
I wouldn’t have thought Paul, Ringo, Harrison family or Yoko really needed the money. For a group who told us all you need is love to become such capitalists is really amusing. Perhaps they meant the love of money?
Besides, what the hell have The Beatles done, musically or otherwise, in the past 30 years which is worthy of “forcing” Apple Computer to bow down and grovel for the use of the name “Apple”?
Last I knew, Apple Corps was a recording label, not a tech company. Oooh, I’m soooo confused. I thought The Beatles made the iPod!!!??
Btw, I think iTunes was spun off due to the Beatles lawsuit (amongst a few other reasons.)
Good typo though.
ps Steve, place that call to Paul/Ringo and sort this shit out.
The important thing to remember is that the surviving Beatles have nothing to do with the operation (such as it is) of Apple Corps. They walked away from that car crash decades ago &, for the most part, haven’t looked back. Apple Corps today exists essentially for two reasons:
(1) To funnel royalties on Beatle records from EMI to the Beatles’ (& heirs’) pockets, doing their best to dodge taxes en route;
(2) To keep a pack of useless lawyers on salary so they won’t clutter up the dole queue.
It is this latter function that causes such headaches for Apple Computer. The sue-bots at Apple Corps are operating almost as autonomously as the spambots that fill your inbox with penis-enlargement ads.
It’s not quite true that there are no worms for OS X. It’s just that the worms are all wearing suits & living in London, & Steve Jobs has to deal with them personally.
As a record producer i think it’s been a real nightmare for all of the people that have their property stolen on the internet. Try and sit in a studio all day every day racking your brains for ideas, only to find that before the single has even left the distibution company to go into record shops some b*****d has got a copy without paying for it…..Theft! If you worked all week and had your wages stolen from your bank account I’m sure you wouldn’t be too happy. Same thing as having your mucic stolen on line. Someone needs a good kick up the arse. Anyone found in connection with these “FREE” music sites should get some sort of conviction. If you walk into your neerest record shop and put a single or album into your pocket and walk out without paying for it, you will get prosocuted if caught. It’sjust as bad if you download for free. I lost two very well known dance music labels last year, I’m 100% certain that it was due to piracy on the net.