BPI Blamed BitTorrent for Music Sales Decline

[Guest Ethan]

Despite the fact that BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has repeatedly claimed an increase in total entertainment industry sales over the last few years, it still says that an increase in digital sales isn’t making up for lost physical sales. This is considering that consumers are no longer forced to buy a whole $20 album, but only the tracks they like for 99 cents apiece.

The BPI still complains, just as the RIAA, about unauthorized downloading, which is solely blamed for the drop in CD sales. Meanwhile, just a week ago the statistics were revealed indicating that digital music currently accounts for over 45% of all music purchases in the United States, compared to 32% in 2008. Even the RIAA admitted that the marketplace is “rapidly changing.”

The British Phonographic Industry repeats the same song as the RIAA – although digital sales go up, physical sales still go down. As a result, the difference between them in favor of the latter is thanks to increasing levels of unauthorized downloading.

BPI claims that the market is still “heavily distorted” by unauthorized file-sharing. It also suggests that “meaningful action to address unauthorized downloading is absolutely critical if they are to stabilize national music sales.

Actually, it seems to be an odd statement to make keeping in mind August 2010, when it claimed total music industry revenues were up 2.3% from the previous year. At the time BPI CEO, Geoff Taylor, said that the country’s record companies have responded to tough market conditions by innovating and developing new revenue streams from music. Well, if that was true, then it’s unclear why the BPI is now unable to “stabilize” music sales.

The problem seems to be the BPI’s delusion that digital sales should exceed physical sales, which in reality will never happen.

Previously, most consumers had the only choice of either buying the entire album or none, as it was impossible to pick single tracks. iTunes changed all that a while ago, enabling music fans to fork over mere 99 cents for their favorite track, down from the $20 they earlier had to pay.

A survey carried out in the United Kingdom last year revealed that streaming music has caused a great part of young adults to quit unauthorized downloading altogether. All this proves that instead of blaming BitTorrent for the decline in music revenues the BPI should better come to terms with a “rapidly changing marketplace.”