Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Damned Lies and Statistics

A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales shows online music trading appears to have had no part in the slide in CD sales.

Researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina logged music downloads over 4 months in 2002, matching the data with actual sales performance of the material downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping translated into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero". They found that

"...file-sharing has only had a limited effect on record sales.. While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing."

The RIAA predictably dismissed the findings, as they are "inconsistent with earlier findings", as if previous studies could be considered as scientifically unchallengeable. Its eerily close, for instance, to the kind of logic that the Catholic Church used during the Middle Ages to dismiss the astronomical findings of Copernicus and others - if its too far from the established "truth" then it must be wrong. Of course, the Sun ceased to orbit the Earth not too long after the early astronomers were condemned as "heretics".

The study also showed that downloads could even have a "slight positive effect" on the sales of the top albums. Their research is regarded as "the most detailed economic modelling survey to use data obtained directly from file-sharing networks".

Item posted by AutoEditor at 10:30 am ::