] The music industry, which this week filed suit against ] another 531 Internet users, says its tactics are slowing ] the tide of free downloads, citing cases like Kullberg's. ] ] A study released in January that surveyed 1,358 Internet ] users in late fall found the number of Americans ] downloading music dropped by half %u2014 17 million fewer ] countrywide %u2014 compared with six months earlier. ] ] But some experts and users say that file sharers are only ] being more secretive, and that file swapping is actually ] increasing. At least two research firms say more than 150 ] million songs are being downloaded free every month. The RIAA need only do the math to figure out why this is happening. A buck a track? 18 cuts will cost me $18??? There is no physical product to press, package, ship, distribute and stick on a retail rack. The irony is that several "middle men" have been cut from the equasion yet the labels have a larger profit margin (bandwidth/disk space = cheap). Drop the price per track to what it SHOULD cost - about 25 cents a pop and their online sales should soar. Apparently they didn't think consumers were smart enough to figure out they were STILL being ripped off. The RIAA fucked up - again. |