No Rock And Roll Fun

SALES FALL: Reports coming from the BPI suggest that singles and album sales in the second quarter of the year are down by 15.6 per cent (albums) and 13.8 per cent (singles) on the same period in 2001. The BPI has actually decided to blame things other than piracy this time round - the jubilee, the world cup, bad weather (are they confusing records and trips to Blackpool?) but then caved in and went "ooh, it must be piracy." It's curious that the more file swapping services close, the more sales actually drop, isn't it? We're ages on from Napster - the last service that anyone bothered with in huge numbers - and Audiogalaxy was getting worse and finally axed during this sales period - and yet, apparently aided by Beckham and rain, it's file swapping that has led to the drop in sales. We get tired of repeating this, but we'll try it again: Maybe piracy might hit sales. Perhaps the attraction of other things could cause problems. But why doesn't the BPI ever go "Maybe we've sold fewer records because they've been generally more rubbishy than this time last year?"
Oh, and BPI - you forgot to blame Big Brother taking press space away from bands and cash from the shops. Have that one on us.
The sky is falling [FT] - Maybe if we got Darius to record with hear'say?