[IP] Fwd: Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales"
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 12:16:32 -0400
From: Barry Ritholtz <britholtz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales"
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Hey Dave,
for IP, if you like.
Nielsen Ratings: RIAA full of S$%^.
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/05/nielsen_ratings.html
Here's a shocker: It turns out that the RIAA is full of crap. Who would
have ever guessed it?
According to Moses Avalon of Kensei News
<http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml>,
Soundscan has some very different readings on Album sales than the RIAA.
While the 5 major US labels claims "a significant reduction in sales over
the past three years," it turns out the RIAA has been greatly exaggerating
the loss:
- For the first quarter of 2003 Soundscan registered 147,000,000 records
sold.
- For the 1st quarter of 2004 Soundscan will report 160,000,000 records
sold.
"That's 13,000,000 more units, almost a 10% increase in sales since last
year. First quarter "album sales" (as opposed to overall sales) had
increased 9.4% since 2003."
What's the source of the different reporting of sales? According to Kensei,
its "SHIPMENTS" = "SALES"
That's the secret decoder formula. Go back to the RIAA and International
Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) Web sites, and you will
learn that:
"every time the RIAA complains of large drops in "unit sales" it includes
international sales, not strictly domestic."
Every time it speaks to domestic "losses" it is speaking ONLY of "units
shipped in the US" to record stores. It seemed obvious that if the RIAA
confined their revenue statistics to the US market alone they may not be
able to publish ANY losses in REVENUE at all. . . "Even though actual
point-of-purchase sales are up by about 9% in the US - and the industry
sold over 13,000,000 more units in 2004 (1st quarter) than in 2003 (1st
quarter) - the Industry is still claiming a loss of 7% because RIAA members
shipped 7% fewer records than in 2003.
Pathetic.
Source:
Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales
<http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml>
Source: Music Dish - Moses Avalon
May 5, 2004, 08:49
http://www.kensei-news.com/bizdev/publish/factoids_us/article_23374.shtml
Barry L. Ritholtz
Market Strategist
Maxim Group
405 Lexington Avenue,
New York, NY 10174
(212) 895-3614
(800) 724-0761
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