the

music

industry.piracy or poor strategy?

JOSH HERNANDEZ

my passion.

music.

a year industry in the US alone

the music industry.

$10.4 BILLION

an industry of giants.

82%of the music industry is controlled by four entities:

UNIVERSAL

SONY

WARNER

EMI

INDEPENDENT

LABELS

the rise of digital

content.1993: The mp3 file format is born

1999: Napster, a music sharing

network, is launched

2001: The RIAA shuts Napster down

2001: Apple releases the first iPod

2003: Apple opens the iTunes Store

an industry in

decline.

According to the RIAA, music sales have dropped

47% from $14.6 to 7.7 billion since 1999

From 2004 to 2009, 30 billion songs have been

downloaded illegally online

Approximately $12.5 billion in lost revenues are

caused by music piracy every year

interesting facts.

- Album sales increased every year while Napster was in

existence

- The RIAA calculates sales by the amount of units shipped,

not units sold

- Consumers can buy the songs they like as singles rather

than an entire album

- Digital files have decreased the cost of producing music

immensely: no CDs, album inserts, cases, shipping, unsold

inventory

a look at RIAA financial statements.

spent in prosecuting piracy from 2006-2008

$64 million

$1.4 millionrecovered from piracy cases actually won

discussion.

1. Is piracy actually affecting music sales? (would pirates

actually buy the music if they couldn’t steal it)

2. Have the record companies failed to adapt to the

preferences of the customer?

3. How much are you willing to pay for an album on iTunes?

4. With services like Pandora and Grooveshark, do you still

feel the need to buy music?