Soundscan: "Sales down? Not according to us."The RIAA continue to alienate musicians and music consumers alike with their ongoing attempts to tie in online piracy with 'falling' retail figures. The latest bit of bad news for the American recording association is that real sales figures aren't down at all - according to Soundscan - the company responsible for measuring sales in the USA - sales figures for the first quarter of 2004 (160m units sold) were up on the same time-frame from last year (147m), almost a 10% increase.

But, the RIAA's Cary Sherman claimed recently that there was a 7% decrease over this period. How are these figures so divergent? As is so often the way, it all depends on who's spinning them. The RIAA use 'units shipped' to measure relative sales from year to year, as opposed to the actual units sold. As a practical example of how this approach can skew figures, take this example (from here)...

I shipped 1000 units last year and sold 700 of them. This year I sold 770 units but shipped only 930 units. I shipped 10% less units this year. And this is what the RIAA wants the public to accept as "a loss."

Moses Avalon, the author of the piece being linked to, also points out that...

I misplaced my MBA this morning, but my mental math assures me that fewer returns and shorter reserves should mean an INCREASE in record company profits and artists' royalties. If this is true, and file-sharing is responsible, one could conclude that "on-line piracy" has been the single greatest factor in increasing profits, because it forces record companies to keep a tighter lid on mass-production and costs.

Which may be pushing things a little far, but, still, it's yet another situation where the RIAA has been pushing facts that, under a little scrutiny, don't really hold up too well.

[via the wireless]
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