Interesting posts about another of my loves, music.
Mathew Ingram has details of the RIAA-Washington Post kerfuffle, which is not making reporter Marc Fisher look all that good, in a post appropriately titled The RIAA: Possibly right, still weasels. Mathew’s point has been made by others: while the RIAA has neatly picked apart Fisher’s original article, it still refuses to admit that personal copying of tunes from CDs Americans own is fair use, claiming the issue is “too complicated” or a simple answer.
(See the CNET post RIAA shreds Washington Post story in debate for some background.)
And while Mathew is dealing with the RIAA, Michael Geist has the figures that show that while the CRIA (the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA) is playing Chicken Little, Canadian Digital Music Sales Outperform the U.S. – Again.
Today’s data further counters CRIA’s claims, confirming that Canada has outperformed the U.S. in key music sales areas for two consecutive years. Digital track sales grew by 73 percent in Canada last year, far faster the U.S. figure of 45 percent. Digital album sales grew by 93 percent in Canada compared with 53 percent in the U.S. Meanwhile, overall album sales declined by 6.9 percent in Canada, less than the U.S. figure of 9.5 percent (and far less than the misleading 35 percent shipment figure that CRIA heavily promoted during much of 2007). In other words, Canadian digital sales grew faster than the U.S. last year, while physical sales declined at a slower rate than in the U.S.
This doesn’t play well with the CRIA’s demands that the Canadian government adopt draconian, U.S.-like DMC copyright changes, of course.
One more thing: I’ve been meaning to record a year-end podcast — just because I can — drawing some attention to the 10 best albums that I discovered in 2007. I didn’t get to it by Dec. 31; maybe this weekend.
TAGS: MUSIC
