LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Last year was not a good time to be selling compact discs as revenues generated from the sales of said discs dropped a whopping 13% last year, the largest one-year drop yet.
In a report by the Washington Post, the RIAA outlined the previous fiscal year's numbers, including a 12.8 percent drop in CDs shipped. The biggest loss was in Latin music which saw a 21.3% decline in value when compared to 2005's shipped value. Overall, CDs sales have slipped in every year since they peaked in 2000 with the exception of a slight increase (to the tune of 2%) between 2003/2004.
The flip side of this is the increasingly lively prospect for digital music sales. Online sales of singles have shown a 60% increase from last year and album sales are up a whopping 103% from 2005 as music fans use services such as iTunes and emusic to fill one of the 100 million iPods that have been sold.
"Today's music marketplace has challenges, but it also offers reason for hope and optimism," RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement. "The appetite for music is as strong as ever" he added that "Beyond the existing marketplace, the record companies continue to develop additional new business models and revenue streams like mobile and online videos."
The RIAA is sticking with their policy of trying to sue their way back to profitability however: Just last week, more "pre-litigation letters" were sent to 22 different colleges around the country alleging that individuals had used the school's network to illegally acquire copyrighted material. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
