RIAA Blaming MP3 For Dwindling Music Sales Among Teenagers

from the guess-it's-time-to-go-sue-someone-else-now dept

A recent study by the RIAA is apparently suggesting that "illegal" downloads of MP3 is causing fewer legitimate sales of music to teenagers. Somehow I get the feeling that the RIAA, instead of dealing with this properly, realizing that MP3 is here to stay, will try to blame someone and put up false barriers to prevent people from getting MP3s. Good luck.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Mike, 24 Mar 1999 @ 9:55am

    Additional info

    I just saw an email that pointed out in absolute numbers the sales to teenagers was much larger, but that percentage-wise it was a lot small due to the larger sheer number of older adults thanks to the baby boom. Plus, it's no big surprise that baby boomers are buying more music, which makes the percentage of teenagers buying music smaller, but not the actual dollar amounts. In fact, it looked like the dollar amounts were growing quite a bit. So, it looks like the RIAA was just trying to be devious. Big surprise there.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Lucy, 14 Jul 1999 @ 7:38am

    Don't need RIAA when I've found GODD

    As an musician, I should have the same rights and oppertunities to create,distribute and promote my music, as the big record companies. But the RIAA wants to control distribution so that only corporate controlled musicians and artists who want to sell millions,and not the artists promoting just a few hundred or thousand, get thier music heard and distributed.As an american I beleive in free enterprise, a mom and pop general store has just as much of a right to do business as Walmart.I can make music for myself.I bought my own Digital workstation and CD burner for a little over 2,000$.They are so inexpensive now that millions are being sold worldwide,millions of artists are creating thier own music without "record deals" or the blessings or help of the RIAA.Thier charting system is corrupt and unreliable,outdated anyways, because they don't even have a clue ,or want to acknowledge as to how much independant and post independant music is sold.The record companies spent milllions upon millions on thier recording studios.Why should I subsidize them,at my expense. I'm not a bootlegger or copywrite infringer, I make my own creations, always have. Yet somehow the RIAA has convinced lawmakers to pass a law and collect unfair taxes and subsidies for the record companies,claiming that it protects the rights of artist, but the truth is it doesn't,many small artists are footing the bill for studio time they aren't even using.As an artist I should not be paying a subsidy or tax on my recording machine nor the media that it is recorded to.Is an artist who paints charged extra for the paint and canvas because possibly I could create and sell a forgery of a piccasso.I could care less about copying someone else work,I make my own original works of art. If you bought a car and were charged a tax for speeding violations that you would potentially commit,but not get caught for, then charged this same tax everytime you went to gas up the car,you would be mad enough to make sure that such a senseless law and unfair taxation would never happen.But through lobbying efforts the RIAA has convinced lawmakers that they represent 90 percent of all music bought and sold legitimately.This is a lie, they only have 75% and that does not represent all recording musicians,just thier elite corporate club. This law needs to be repealed, all the way to the supreme court.Artists not associated will RIAA should form class action suits in every state in the union, until our voice is heard,until this unfair tax is revoked.Vote for common sense people. Who is GODD. GUILD of the DIGITAL DOMAIN. We are the artists who are truly independant.Pioneers of the Digital Domain. Promote MPEG3 in it's current incarnation and it will thrive in spite of RIAA efforts to control all recordings. Class Action lawsuits worked against the big tobacco companies.It can really work for us too.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.