The BANG Theory

We’re not first to the party in reporting this, but…the RIAA released 2007 numbers last week (yep, last week - four months after year-end) and a few highlights include:

• CD shipments (net) dropped 17.5% while the dollar value of those shipments dropped 20.5%.
• The LP/EP category (vinyl records) saw shipments increase 36.6% with a 46.2% increase in dollar value.
• Cassette shipments (net) dropped 41.2% with, oddly, only a 18.4% drop in dollar value.
• Kiosk downloads increased 28.5% by units and 38.1% by dollar value.
• Subscriptions to music services (using a weighted annual average) increased a mere 0.7% while their dollar value dropped 2.6%.
• Mobile increased 14.6% by units and by 13.6% by dollar value. Mobile includes master ringtones, ringbacks, music videos, full track downloads and “other mobile.”

Not in the report was the fact that people continue to listen to music and LOTS of it. Also not in the report was “holy sh*t, this ship is sinking faster than we thought”…though that would have been a perfectly appropriate summary. Music still fills the streets, music still fills our headphones and music fanatics are growing in numbers not declining….Musicians continue to turn out new music and amazing stuff at that and they deserve to make money from their efforts.

So, it’s just the distribution that has changed and the RIAA just won’t accept or embrace that.