In response to a recent survey which indicated that people who download pirated music pay for 10 times more music than people who don’t, EMI’s Bjor Rogstad said

“There is one thing we are not going away, and it is the consumption of music increases, while revenue declines. It can not be explained in any way other than that the illegal downloading is over the legal sale of music” (link)

I beg to differ. There are a number of reasons that while consumption is up (not even sure that is true), revenue would decrease:

  • People are downloading individuals songs rather than albums. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that studios made more money when people had to buy $15 CDs rather than $.99 tracks.

  • Streaming music. More and more people are listening to music primarily on their computers. As a result they can take advantage of streaming music services thus decreasing their need to buy music to have something to listen to.

  • MySpace music. MySpace has become THE place that younger adults look for music. As a result a number of bands are choosing to try and do it on their own without a label. Need proof check out: trueanthem urlabel imeem etc.

  • Quality/Quantity of music available. I would argue that the quantity of quality music available through labels has decreased (perhaps as a result of all of the above.).

    • The point being that there are a number of reasons labels decrease in revenue can be explained other than piracy. Perhaps it is time that record labels stop blaming consumers and start thinking about what they can do to change their model.

    DISCLOSURE: I am an employee of trueAnthem