CBC

The U.S and Germany have experienced a downward trend in music sales -- and industry officials are blaming CD burning. The BBC reports that the British market, however, has seen an 18-percent growth in album sales during the first half of the year. New figures show music sales in the U.S. and Germany, in all formats, fell by ten-percent over the last year. CD sales in the U.S. have dropped five-percent, while cassette music sales have slumped by 43-percent. An industry study revealed that half of those questioned in the last month had downloaded music from the Internet and 70-percent of those had burned the songs onto a CD. The head of the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen, said she expected the figures to improve by the year's end.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 22, 2001

Answers

I've seen similar figures to these quoted before. The falls in sales are only for singles (not albums). Album sales are increasing everywhere, particularly in colleges - possibly due to the fact that file sharing services allow people to 'try before they buy' and to discover music more easily.

-- a programmer (a@programmer.com), August 23, 2001.