There are many reasons why sales are slipping in the entertainment industry, none of which have been addressed. People got tired of going out to buy an album with a song on it that they heard on the radio, only to find out that this song is the only good one on the album, and the record company obviously didn’t put an money into any other songs. People got tired of building up entire collections in one format (VHS, tape, etc), only to have it go obsolete in a few years when a new format is released, forcing them to re-buy their entire catalog (with no discount for trade-ins). People got tired of having to re-buy up to 25% of their collection each year because the format was cheap and inexpensive, breaking or scratching easily and needing replacement. Digital files eliminate all of these lucrative secondary sources of income that companies have relied on. Why don’t we see these facts accounted for in any statistics? Or - how about weird stuff like this: 10 digital songs equals one album? Nope - 1 digital song equals 1 entire CD not bought because that song was the only good song on the CD.

Or maybe, people (like me) finally discovered that it’s cheaper to wait a few months and buy stuff used on eBay or Amazon. You never hear companies bringing that up…..

Is there empirical evidence for the proposition that the availability of pirated music causes increased CD sales?

Look at the US Album Charts. No. 1 is the new album from Radio Head, that could be downloaded legally for nothing before the sale. (actually, as people could pay for it also, it seems that the group made a mean profit of 3$ per download - more than they make in selling the CD)

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