RIAA ON INDUSTRY: IT
WAS A VERY BAD YEAR
The RIAA’s 2002 Yearend Statistics, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, show CD shipments slipping 8.9%, as compared to 6.4% last year, while total unit shipments were down 11.2% as compared to 10.3% in 2000-2001. Total dollar value of CDs sold was down 6.7% after a 2.3% drop last year.
Said RIAA Chairman/CEO Hilary Rosen: "A major cause of the decline in 2002 includes the ongoing problem on online and physical piracy. As we have seen piracy rise, we are responding aggressively online and have dramatically upped the activities of our Anti-Piracy Unit, increasing our seizures of counterfeit and pirate CDRs by 90% in 2002. But, after next December, it’s not my problem."
Total value of sales was $12.6 billion, an 8.2% drop from last year, and the lowest total since 1997, when the total value of shipments was $12.2 billion.
Total retail units sold were down 7.8%, while total retail value was down 6.8%, both representing the third year of decreases in a row.
The organization unveiled several anti-piracy strategies, including implementing several programs designed to educate consumers and legislators, as well as enforce existing laws.
Counterfeit/Pirate CD seizures were up 102.1%, while CD-Rs were up 89.5%. There were also 92.5% more search warrants/consent searches, 44.2% more arrests and indictments, 30.6% more guilty pleas/convictions and 167% more 50 Cent bootlegs gathered in a six-block radius of Times Square.
