CD copying not to blame for sales slump?

Video may have killed the radio star, but Forrester Research has said Internet piracy was not to blame -- as record labels have claimed -- for the 15 percent drop in music sales in the past two years.

Oh, looks like good ol' DMCA was overkill after all... ;)

"There is no denying that times are tough for the music business, but not because of downloading," said Josh Bernoff, principal analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm Forrester Research, who released a report on the digital music market on Tuesday.

Based on surveys of 1,000 U.S. online consumers, Forrester said it sees no evidence of decreased CD buying among frequent digital music consumers and said the record labels could restore industry growth by making it easier for people to find, copy, and pay for music on their own terms. Forrester predicts that by 2007, digital music revenues in the United States will reach more than $2 billion (1.3 billion pounds), or 17 percent of the music business, from about $3 million in 2001.

"Plenty of other causes [for the downturn rather than file swapping networks] are viable, including the economic recession and competition from surging video game and DVD sales," Bernoff said.

News source: Reuters UK