No Rock And Roll Fun

A STRANGE PERSPECTIVE: We suspect BPI head Peter Jamieson is the sort of bloke who has trouble seeing anything other than the rain symbols when he watches a weather forecast. For how else could a man look at the brilliant performance of the UK music industry and only be able to mutter "we are seeing a strong move in the digital market which is helping to create the beginning of a turn for the industry."

The beginning of a turn? But 2004 was a bumper, bumper year - sure, the total value of the CD market didn't grow, but that's because the artificially inflated prices the big labels have imposed on us for years are starting to be adjusted - the number of actual discs being sold is higher than ever. But 2003 was also a record year for CD sales... so that's two years of selling more and more CDs than ever, and it constitutes "the beginning of a turn for the industry." Of course, it's very hard for the BPI to look ecstatic as their industry does really well - they're kind of the Corporate Stan Ogden, pretending to have a bad back in order to gain everyone's sympathy and an easy time of things. Even they, though, are going to have to admit the truth sooner or later: downloading is helping boost CD sales. Just like everyone on the other side of the debate has told them it would.