Germany's music industry said Wednesday that illegal and private copying of CDs and Internet piracy are the main reasons why it expects to post a loss for full-year 2001.
Read the article for some more bullshit by Peter Zombik, head of the phonographic industry federation.
Zombik said it was not just the overall weak economy that was to blame for the development. Rather, the domestic '“ and legal '“ copying of CDs had made the biggest impact on industry sales. The GfK consumer research institute found that some 133 million blank CDs were used for burning copies between April 2000 and March this year. This represents a strong rise on the 66 million burned copies found in GfK's one but last survey. |
Many music publishers plan to put a stop to the private copying of CDs by introducing a device that will prevent CD burners from reading the original. But even with this protection in place Zombik does not expect to see "a dramatic improvement in the next months". "CD burners were the best-sellers in last year's Christmas sales and we fear it'll be the same this year."
The exchange and downloading of music via the Internet also remains widespread, even after the most popular music exchange Napster stopped operating in its previous format.
This year's Popkomm for the first time had to report a decline in the number of exhibitors, to 838 from 914 last year. The fair organizer said that not only dot.com firms but also many small and mid-sized companies were staying away this year.
Source: Handelsblatt.com
