Ramblings, citations and "brainwaves" of a college librarian in Toronto. 475 square feet refers to the size of my home, not the size of my office or library.
File Sharing Blamed Again as Music Sales Fall in Canada
Published Friday, March 03, 2006 by James | E-mail this post
The Canadian Recording Industry Association reported yesterday that music sales (cds,dvds and online) fell 4% in 2005, to $608.7 million dollars. Online music sales in Canada represent only 2% of our market compared to an average of 6% in other countries, and our high broadband penetration (second only to Korea) coupled with "outdated" copyright laws are continuing the piracy download bonanza, shrinking revenues.
I have another theory. Canadians have less disposable income in Canada, than say the United States. Our mobile phone service plans are in the "dark ages" in Canada, due to an absence of competition. We pay more for plans with useless amounts of daytime minutes, suffer overage fee drowings, are tolled into oblivion for mobile data services, the list goes on. Ask any teenager (previously they were big buyers of music) with a budget crunch requiring drastic cuts to total spending and they will fight for the mobile phone over other expenditures. It is the vital service in their lives. I would argue even more than the PC with a broadband Internet connection. I would argue, without numbers to back me up, that if our mobile phone plans were as affordable as they are in the U.S.A., kids would have more dollars to buy music online and reduce downloading of music, movies, video games, textbooks, etc.
Do I support piracy, no. But blaming our copyright laws and broadband access is overly simplistic.
I have another theory. Canadians have less disposable income in Canada, than say the United States. Our mobile phone service plans are in the "dark ages" in Canada, due to an absence of competition. We pay more for plans with useless amounts of daytime minutes, suffer overage fee drowings, are tolled into oblivion for mobile data services, the list goes on. Ask any teenager (previously they were big buyers of music) with a budget crunch requiring drastic cuts to total spending and they will fight for the mobile phone over other expenditures. It is the vital service in their lives. I would argue even more than the PC with a broadband Internet connection. I would argue, without numbers to back me up, that if our mobile phone plans were as affordable as they are in the U.S.A., kids would have more dollars to buy music online and reduce downloading of music, movies, video games, textbooks, etc.
Do I support piracy, no. But blaming our copyright laws and broadband access is overly simplistic.
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