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March 29, 2005
Mark Cuban on RIAA Sales Figures
In addition to being the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban is a respected technology entrepreneur with some pretty progressive views. In a recent blog post he questions the logic of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In part, he writes:
"The RIAA claims that sales of the top 100 CDs sold 195mm units in 1999, materially above the 154mm units sold in 2004. Which leads to a question. Are sales down due to filesharing, or have RIAA members just lost market share?
"I contend RIAA sales are down because they lost market share. There are more CDs being self-published or released by non-RIAA members than ever before. Sales from web sites, concerts and car trunks are taking away sales from traditional labels. Access and awareness of that music has exploded through web radio, web sites, p2p, satellite radio and tours."
Here, here! There's a lot of activity brewing below the surface of SoundScan.
"The RIAA claims that sales of the top 100 CDs sold 195mm units in 1999, materially above the 154mm units sold in 2004. Which leads to a question. Are sales down due to filesharing, or have RIAA members just lost market share?
"I contend RIAA sales are down because they lost market share. There are more CDs being self-published or released by non-RIAA members than ever before. Sales from web sites, concerts and car trunks are taking away sales from traditional labels. Access and awareness of that music has exploded through web radio, web sites, p2p, satellite radio and tours."
Here, here! There's a lot of activity brewing below the surface of SoundScan.
posted by Bob Baker @ 1:08 PM
3 comments
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I would think a reasonable person could assume that, to some degree, he's right. But then were not talking to reasonable people now are we......
I also find it amusing and ironic that the ones who complain the loudest are the ones who invented it. I'm pretty sure there wasn't much file sharing of vinyl records.
Such a big duh....where is the competition for Nielson anyway?...why does everyone swallow up and trust this monopoly's numbers anyway?
Research that looks at the consumers rather than the sellers would give us a better view. Poll a few thousand people that make up a representative cross section of the expected audiences and ask them how much music that bought from all sources. While you are at it ask them how much music they downloaded illegally. I suspect RIAA is somewhat right, but I think the picture is more complex, and the expanded sales by do-it-your-selfers is a good example of how things are changing.