“Piracy, both online and on the street, continues to hit the music community hard, and thousands have lost their jobs because of it,” RIAA chairman and ceo Mitch Bainwol claims.
The jobless thousands notwithstanding, the music industry is doing very well in the first half of 2004 with full-length CD shipments to retail outlets increasing by 10.2% compared to the same time period in 2003, says the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
“It is the first time in five years that the first half of the year has experienced an overall increase in shipments of all formats combined. DVD music videos and licensed digital downloads also showed impressive growth,” says the music industry enforcer, giving the lie to its own claims that its owners, the members of the Big Four record label cartel, are being ruined by file sharing. [more @ www.p2pnet.net]