At least in Mexico, I would put the extreme proliferation and availability
of cheap pirate reproductions as one of the main reasons (but I think your
numbers did not refer to sales worldwide, did them?) In just a few months,
pirate CDs have become from easily available to just everywhere, and from
cheap (five ro four bucks just a few motnhs ago) to very, very cheap (less
than two bucks for a single CD, between two and three for a double). You
used to find them on the streets or outdoors markets, but recently I have
also seen them in general stores and just about everywhere. Furthermore,
even though they still carry mostly 'catalogue' material (old hits,
standards and compilations) and recent top-sellers, now it is extremely
easy to find even some less commercial material like some of the stuff on
this list (even though it is a little more expensive, like five dollars a
CD, which definitely beats the 30 dollars or so whcih would be required to
buy the original imported release at a local store). Mom and Pop's record
stores have practically disappeared, leaving only the big chains of stores
like Tower Records and records sections of department stores as the only
available place to buy legit material.
Dr. Axel Arturo Barcelo Aspeitia
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas +
+ Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico +
+ Mexico Distrito Federal +
+ (52)5622 7213 +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
www.mp3.com/drxl
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ /"\ ASCII Ribbon campaign +
+ \ / against gratuitious HTML/RTF email +
+ X Micro$oft Word docs +
+ / \ and proprietary formats +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On Tue, 27 Nov 2001, 21st century soul wrote:
> But why do u, aj listee, think people are buying in smaller quantities?
> ---------
>
> 1. the recession
> 2. the war - people have better things to worry about than the new janet jackson album
> 3. most major label music is manufactured tripe
> 4. i think the napster debacle opened people's eyes to the machinations of the industry and can increasingly see through it. they're more aware of the manufactured product vs. the legitimate artist and are going for the latter.
> 5. the industry is bitching because sales are merely brisk and not through the damn roof -- and of course they're going to still blame it on filesharing. it won't end until you can be put in prison for downloading mp3's....
>
> mike
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Nov 28 2001 - 09:10:24 CET