All Things Digital

Skip to main content.

SEARCH

Digital Daily by John Paczkowski

The Digital Daily Feed

All posts tagged ‘John Kennedy’

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Sprint’s Boardroom Bloodbath

Posted at 11:00 AM PT

Comment Tagged: Dan Hesse, Digital Daily Live, Facebook, IFPI, ISP, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, John Kennedy, John Paczkowski, Mark Zuckerberg, Meg Whitman, Sprint, applications, data, digital music, eBay, information, layoffs, music, piracy, privacy, social networking, wireless | permalink

Digital Music Sales Are Up. In Other News, Recording Industry’s Whining Trend Line Remains Steady

cryingbaby.jpg
Digital music sales are soaring, but that hasn’t stopped the recording industry from continuing to spin its long-running woe-is-me tale of piracy and declining revenues.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s 2008 Digital Music Report (PDF), global digital music sales rose to $2.9 billion in 2007, up from $2.1 billion in 2006.

Now that 40% increase isn’t nearly the doubling of digital sales we saw in 2006, but it’s not insubstantial, either. Especially when one considers that digital sales grew to account for 15% of the world’s music market, up from 10% in 2006. That means that almost a sixth of music sales already come through digital channels. This despite five or so years of the recording industry’s Keystone Kops approach to the digital music revolution.

All things considered, things aren’t going too poorly–even if the growth of digital music sales hasn’t yet offset declines in physical music. That being the case, it’s difficult not to look askance at the IFPI’s calls for governments and Internet service providers to take a hard line against file-sharing.

“Copyright theft has been allowed to run rampant on [ISP] networks under the guise of technological advancement,” IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy wrote in the report. “Some estimates say no less than 80% of all Internet traffic comprises copyright-infringing files on peer-to-peer networks.”–80%? Does the IFPI suffer from the same math disability as the MPAA?–”ISPs have largely stood by, allowing a massive devaluation of copyrighted music. This in turn–and despite all the positives about our digital growth–has prompted a crisis in recorded music that has wide implications for the whole digital marketplace and all those businesses to whom music is an important ingredient. … Today, however, a sea-change is happening. The whole music sector, governments and even some ISPs themselves, are beginning to accept that the carriers of digital content must play a responsible role in curbing the systemic piracy that is threatening the future of all digital commerce. After years of discussing and debating, I am convinced it is no longer a question of whether the ISPs act–the question is when and how.”

And the answer? Five bucks and a copy of the latest Britney Spears album says it’s network-level filtering.

Posted at 12:05 AM PT

Sphere 1 Comment Tagged: Digital Daily, IFPI, ISP, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Internet, John Kennedy, John Paczkowski, copyright, digital, digital music, file-sharing, filtering, infringing, music, network, peer-to-peer network, piracy, revenue | permalink

Digital Daily Posts by Date

Digital Daily Posts by Tag

More Digital Daily Tags »

Digital Daily Live

Goohoo Delayed
No Comments

More Digital Daily Live »

Featured Digital Daily Posts

About John

John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.

Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

Read more »

alt.misc

Older at alt.misc »