MUSIC INDUSTRY COMPLAIN "GOOSE MAY LAY GOLDEN EGGS, BUT WHY DOESN'T SHE HAVE TWO EGG SHOOTS?"

Online music downloads - they're doing really well, aren't they? Over six and a half million sold every week, week-by-week. A market that wasn't there before, doing really well. The record companies must be delighted, yeah? Nope. They see that as a plateau, and a bad thing. They want the figures to grow every week, every year. (Leave aside that the decision by some companies to offer subscription services, which don't count as downloads, is disguising some of the growth and the summer, with students away from their dorms and a slumbering release schedule, is hardly going to do wonders for increasing sales.) And guess what their solution is?

To put the prices up. Yes, the fact that sales are holding steady is a sign that, erm, the consumers must want to pay more.

If you'll excuse me, there's a commotion in the barnyard. I think someone may be taking an axe to the goose...

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