Music file sharers also buy more CDs, report says
Contrary to what the music industry has been suggesting, people who download music through file sharing are also more likely to buy CDs, according to a government study.
The report found that for every track downloaded using peer-to-peer (P2P) software, file sharers purchased 0.44 more CDs a year than those who did not use the software.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association says CD sales have massively tumbled since file sharing took off in 1999, but a new report questions the link.
“There is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing,” the report said. “That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing.”
The report, prepared by University of London researchers Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz for Industry Canada, stands in stark contrast to positions from recording industry associations, which blame downloading of music ó a legal grey area in Canada ó for declining CD sales.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association said that in 2007 to the end of July, wholesale sales of CDs, music DVDs and other “physical” music formats fell 20 per cent to $183 million, from $230 million a year earlier. That decline followed on a 48 per cent drop in retail sales of physical formats since the advent of widespread file-swapping in 1999. The association blamed piracy and counterfeiting for the lost sales.
The Industry Canada report, which used data from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June 2006, also found that when the entire general Canadian population was examined, there was no evidence to suggest that downloads were harming CD sales.
“The analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a positive or negative relationship between the number of files downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased,” the report said.
People who bought music electronically, such as through Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, were also more likely to buy music on CDs, the report said.
Also, people who bought a high number of DVDs, video games, movie and concert tickets also purchased a higher number of CDs, indicating that other media were not detracting from CD sales, as has also been suggested by music industry associations.
“Music and other entertainment goods are not substitutes; instead the relationship is linked to a lifestyle choice of certain groups of society,” the report said.
Category: Studies
Movie-going in Canada dropped in 2005: StatsCan
The lustre of the silver screen wasn’t enough to draw movie-goers to Canadian theatres in 2005, as attendance plunged by 7.8 per cent from the previous year, according to a new survey.
In a year of films such as Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Syriana and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Canadian cinemas sold just under 105.2 million tickets, Statistics Canada said Friday.
The sharp decline followed a year of modest gains in 2004 and came despite Famous Players’ policy of lowering the adult ticket price to $10 in most of Canada.
The industry reported that Canadians could not be lured into the cinema in the summer, and the blockbusters that were released ó including Star Wars: Episode III, Batman Begins and War of the Worlds ó were less successful than the summer films of other years.
The growing popularity of cheaper home entertainment equipment, such as DVD players, may also have kept Canadians home.
This year’s crops of summer releases, including the fifth Harry Potter film, Hairspray and a new edition of Die Hard, are expected to be more successful at the box office.
In 2005, each Canadian made an average of 3.2 visits to the movies in 2005, with Albertans the most avid movie-goers, at 5.2 visits a year.
Attendance at cinemas in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan exceeded the national average, while Canadians in Ontario and Eastern Canada made fewer visits to the cinema.
Theatres in Ontario accounted for 40 per cent of cinema revenue, and Quebec, with a steep decline in consumer spending on movie tickets, accounted for 20 per cent.
Declining ticket sales cut into earnings for Canada’s major theatre chains ó with revenue down 5.3 per cent to $1.2 billion, and a huge profit drop, to $29 million from $110 million in 2004.
DVDs Now a Bigger Revenue Draw Than Theaters
A study of British DVD buyers has concluded that they have more than offset the decline in box-office ticket sales. In the case of some low-budget comedies, horror films, well-reviewed dramas, and foreign films, the study observed, DVD sales exceed box-office earnings. The study, conducted for the London Times by the Populus poll, also concluded that consumers who buy DVDs generally do not attend movie theaters, are older than filmgoers, and are likely to be female. In addition, the study suggested that these consumers have generally concluded that studio executives have given up trying to cater to adult tastes and that the DVD market, despite the enormous revenue that it currently generates, does not influence the types of films currently being made
Singles downloaded most
NEW YORK (Variety) — The singles scene is alive and thriving on the Internet.
New research by NPD Group confirms what many pundits and users have already suspected: When it comes to downloading digital music over the Internet, individual singles are downloaded with far greater frequency than whole albums of a single artist.
Research by NPD tracking a broad base of both peer-to-peer and legitimate online music retail stores like iTunes suggests that when downloading single tracks from the Web, consumers chose to download only one track from an album 85% of the time; 94% of the time consumers downloaded two or fewer tracks from an album. Users downloaded the entire album less than 1% of the time, NPD noted.
Furthermore, research indicates a vast majority of digital song tracks downloaded by consumers during those three months were “catalog” tracks released more than 18 months ago. That compares with a roughly 50/50 split between new and catalog sales in the physical product (i.e., CD) market.
Admittedly, these numbers are skewed by the fact that digital downloading is still dominated by illegal file swapping, where albums are not as readily available or promoted. On iTunes, said one music exec, albums constitute as much as half of all downloading traffic. Record labels are anxious not to cannibalize their more profitable album business.
Still, NPD veep Russ Crupnick says a shift from albums, which dominate in the physical product market, to singles is inevitable based on the behavior already observed. “There’s going to be a major shift, though it’s still too early to say whether it’s 20% or 30% of the ultimate market,” he said.
It’s also noteworthy that when users burn a CD for use on another device, only 12% of the time do they copy the whole album.
“In the world of paid services, consumers may prefer buying singles,” said Crupnick, “so record companies must locate a balance between effectively promoting new releases while not losing sight of the revenue-generating power of popular songs from the catalog — and import or concert tracks, as well.”
Crupnick believes it’s sensible to offer a discount when consumers buy four or five songs from the same artist, regardless of what album they originate from. “It may not be all about the bestselling songs, either. Less popular tracks offered as free downloads might even be effectively leveraged to market paid downloads of more popular songs and drive sales of full CDs.”
Kids Who Watch More TV Eat Fewer Vegetables-Study
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The more television children watch the less fruit and vegetables they eat, probably because the advertising they see leaves them craving junk food instead, a study said on Monday.
Children surveyed for the study who spent more time watching television ate 0.16 fewer servings of fruit and vegetables for every extra hour watched. That additional hour a day of TV watching added up to one less nutritional serving every six days.
Heavy television viewing by children has been linked to eating more junk food, getting less exercise and obesity, but this was the first study to show that TV watching led to lower consumption of nutritious fruit and vegetables, said the report, which was published in the journal Pediatrics.
At the start of the survey in 1995, the children, who averaged 12 years of age, ate an average of 4.23 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, which was below the government-recommended five daily servings.
The rising epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States and other industrialized nations has been linked to cardiovascular disease in even young children, and to an accumulation of health problems later in life.
American children spend more time watching television than engaging in any other activity except sleeping, averaging 22 hours of viewing a week, the report said. They are exposed to 20,000 TV commercials a year, or 150 to 200 hours worth.
Study author Renee Boynton-Jarrett of the Harvard School of Public Health said most food advertising aired during children’s shows conflict with healthy eating habits.
“Little of this marketing is aimed at fruit and vegetables,” the report said.