Today click-and-download technology presents a greater threat to the music recording industry than all other past music-delivery technologies combined.
Music piracy exists in 3 different planes:
Illegally mass-manufactured pirate music CDs
Illegal copies of legitimately purchased music CDs
Illegally downloaded digital copies of recorded music
A recent research study on the economic impact of music piracy (Institute for Policy Innovation, August 2007) paints a grim picture. The impact of music piracy to the U.S. economy is estimated at U.S. $12.5 billion annually. It is estimated that 71,060 jobs are lost or at risk due to the economic impact of piracy and the lost growth opportunities account for 26,860 jobs that would have otherwise been created in the recording industry. Even the U.S. government is affected by piracy with an estimated loss of $422 million in tax revenues from lost personal and corporate income due to piracy.
Of course, these figures are based upon the assumption that sales of recorded music on CD would have held constant, or increased, from year to year. The truth is, however, that CD sales are on the decline as MP3...