The Chase For Pirates Heats Up As CD Sales Plummet

The European Parliament will vote on April 27 on a proposal which for the first time would harmonize criminal penalties across all 27 EU countries for a specific range of intellectual-property crimes.  The new l
aws would include prison terms up to 4 years plus large penalties.

Meanwhile US officials have said that they will be filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China is not doing nearly enough to curb piracy in the world’s most populated country. The move comes at a time when the US Congress is increasingly focused on protecting American jobs and assets and just months after America warned the Chinese to comply with international law voluntarily.

Here in the US the RIAA is said to be going after Nine Inch Nails fans who participated in a band sponsored scavenger hunt for advance tracks and then shared them via P2P  In addition to more
aggressive litigation against college students.

Meanwhile, CD sales in most developed music markets are declining rapidly with the US sales dropping 16.6%  in the first 3 months of 2007 alone. Some genres like hip hop and country are down a whopping 30%.

A closer look at the numbers shows that not just piracy and file-sharing are to blame, however. Shrinking space at retail (caused both by record store closings and a less space devoted to music at the big boxes) along with weaker new release schedules also appear to be culprits.

Have you ever been in a local convenience store where the shelves are getting increasingly bare?  The
store lacks the sales to properly re-stock. It’s often called eating the inventory. So you frequent it less and less often as the items you want become unavailable and the vibe of the store becomes almost depressing.

It this same downward spiral that the music industry finds itself in today.  Consumers won’t buy what they don’t know and they can’t buy what the can’t find.