10:15 AM

Music industry in uproar over UNC research:

The Recording Industry Association of America has long bemoaned declining sales, which it blames on illegal downloading. According to the association, the industry shipped almost a third fewer units in 2003 than in 1999. The industry is suing consumers to stop the free downloads.

“If illegal downloading is not the cause of the precipitous decline in sales of recordings, what is?” asks a six-page paper the recording industry group released in response to the study by Strumpf and Harvard’s Felix Oberholzer-Gee. “The results are inconsistent with virtually every other study.”

There could be many causes for the decline, Strumpf said. The economy is weaker. More entertainment choices might be drawing consumer dollars. Radio consolidation has reduced variety.

He says the industry’s response amounts to, ” ‘We have 20 studies, they have one.’ If 20 or 100 or 1,000 people say the sun revolves around the earth, it doesn’t make it so.”