Digital Walls Vex Consumers

journal gazette: I was surprised to learn that seven out of every 10 songs sold online come from the iTunes music store, according to Nielsen SoundScan...(Pretty impressive, but I'm assuming that number is US-only sales though...) However, wouldn't it be cool if someone invented a way to tabulate all downloads legally purchased beyond SoundScan? This could be done on a global scale as well as nationally... I think as digital distribution evolves in the industry, we need a new charting system that is inclusive of all the online music stores, commercial P2P sites and artist websites (direct-to-consumer). Only then will we truly have an accurate picture of the popularity of certain acts...

The article also points out the sad reality that if consumers want songs that they can copy and play anywhere, the best source is usually an MP3 file from a file-sharing network - where it’s simple to find almost any song title for free...The last thing we need  is another file format or proprietary DRM..."This is a major reason legal downloads add up to only single-digit percentages of any music company’s sales", says Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne LLC, a Los Angeles-based online media consultancy. "More locks is not a viable strategy for growing this business."