Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Look you said that the success of Itunes proves that offering non DRM content doesn't depress digital sales. I said that the revenue of the recording industry halved during that period, proving that offering Non DRM content didn't really do anything for the financial health of industry. You said that was irrelevant. I guess the treatment is successful, even if the patient dies. What more is there to say?
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Let me try to explain my point again.
There are two issues here.
(1) Whether the existence of digital versions of traditionally physical objects will have a negative impact on an industry
(2) Whether applying DRM to the digital products will increase or decrease or have no effect on the sales of those digital products
The publishing and music industry cannot affect (1). The digital versions exist whether they like it or not. It seems that the existence of easily copied digital versions of music may have had a negative impact on music industry sales. There's a particularly good look at the US music business here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/these...ndustry-2011-2
It will be interesting to see what the 2010 figures are, when the RIAA release them.
Whether the decline in the music industry CD sales is down to the availability of digital music is anyone's guess.
But all this is irrelevant to the second issue, which is what your question was about
: whether DRM will help or hinder digital sales.
Here the available data is clear. Dropping DRM in 2008/9 did no harm at all to digital music sales. Here's a chart made from the RIAA's own data:
In 2009 digital single and album download continued their steep rise uninterrupted.