Interesting results of the RIAA lawsuit strategy

The uptick in sales may only be a coincidence of releasing more new albums and the economy in general increasing. So sayeth Salon.com, an online magazine. And the general impression of the industry has been damaged by the lawsuits.

Ars Technica: Are the RIAA's tactics working?:

Last week the Recording Industry Association of America filed another 80 lawsuits against suspected music pirates. These 80 were part of a group of 204 who were greeted by thugs with baseball bats...er...notified they would be sued unless they contacted the RIAA about possible financial settlements. The remaining 124 settled by paying penalties ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 each. As part of the settlement, the signees were required to delete copies of illegally obtained copyrighted songs and refrain from badmouthing the RIAA in exchange for no admission of wrongdoing. The RIAA claims their lawsuit strategy is working since the majority ran for their checkbooks and is 'another clear signal that the music community's education and enforcement campaign is getting the message out.'

The individuals who settled may have been part of the 1.4 million households who deleted music files stored on their hard drives in August, according to the NPD Group. This number was up from 606,000 households who wiped their .mp3s in May. The group was eager to credit the RIAA's lawsuits and anti-piracy campaigns for the deletion of files and a decrease in P2P use. Many readers wrote in to question the validity of the deletion numbers and wondered just how the NPD Group obtained their figures. The file deletion numbers were apparently taken from a volunteer group of 40,000 which allow the group to constantly monitor their PCs. The numbers obtained are probably extrapolated to obtain the 1.4 million in the report. Now is this group unbiased and 'balanced to represent the online population of PC users?' I say this group is far more likely to delete music files than the general population since their hard drives constantly being monitored (plus there is the added paranoia the NPD Group may report their activity back to the RIAA). The RIAA didn't get away totally unscathed. In related surveys, the group found that customers' overall impression of the recording industry have been negatively affected by the RIAA's litigation strategy.

This news is being released in a period where the recording industry is seeing an upswing in sales. Compared to sales from the corresponding weeks in 2002, album sales have been up the past seven consecutive weeks. Of course, the recording industry will point out this upswing is a direct effect of lawsuits filed, but Salon.com believes it is only a coincidence. Just as there has never been a solid connection between online P2P usage and record sales, there is no solid connection between the lawsuits and music purchases. Many still believe the recording industry slump was due to high prices, bad music and a bad economy...guess what is happening during this recent upswing? Yup, many outlets (including Universal) have cut prices, a slew of big name acts released albums, and the economy is starting to rebound. If the threat of lawsuits against pirates are a factor in the latest numbers, how does one explain the fact there are, on average, 60% more Kazaa users this year than last? Determining what influences consumer purchases is a complicated business and with tons of consumer data available it is easy for both sides to pick and choose numbers that fit their argument.