In a Nashville's Tennessean op-ed, Liz Kennedy, Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) set out to defend their history of lawsuits and lobbying. "We never expected to “end” piracy…," she wrote. "The goal is to bring the problem under sufficient control so that lawful businesses can compete and the industry can earn enough to protect jobs and invest in new bands."
"Our legal efforts served as an essential educational tool," she continued. Then taking some credit for the growing success of digital music: "today the market exceeds $3 billion annually, and revenue from online platforms will comprise more than 50 percent of total industry revenues this year."
But Kennedy saved her biggest punch for last: "To be clear, no legal efforts are a panacea… But we believe our efforts made a difference...if we had done nothing and illegal downloading skyrocketed further and strangled a flourishing legal marketplace."
Hypebot Readers: While we all are excited by the promise and potential of the digital music era and working to make it a reality, are your sales "flourishing" or am I missing something?
