May 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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May 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Personal CD duplication: more insidious than MP3? 26 May 2000 The most thorough American study to date on consumer demographics and CD sales is inconclusive, if brazen in its claims. Digital rights management company Reciprocal Inc. commissioned a comparison of CD sales figures around college campuses to those in the US in general—finding that sales near campuses were sharply down. Reciprocal president Larry Miller said “These figures should put to rest the ongoing debate about the effects of online file sharing.” The study, however, provides no evidence directly supporting that claim, leaving open the question of whether it is MP3 trading, CD duplication, or something else behind the figures. While they loosely considered Napster usage, they did not track other factors such as sales of blank CD-recordable discs. Using data from VNU Entertainment Marketing Solutions/SoundScan, the Reciprocal report shows that overall sales grew 12 percent in the past two years. But within five miles of campuses over the same period sales dropped 4 percent. The study’s authors write “...anecdotal evidence suggested a link between students with fast [Internet] connections, the illegal trading of unlicensed music, and its effect on record sales.” The report fails to mention that MP3 files are in fact less than CD quality, and that full quality CD duplication is extremely inexpensive and easy. A complete CD duplication setup (not counting a computer) can cost less than US$200, and blank discs can be found for less than $1 each. | Reciprocal press release / story | | Report (PDF file) | | Chart (PDF file) | | top of page | |
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