What makes you think this? Do you have any evidence in the form of studies etc.? Like I said in a comment above, it seems more plausible that it was due to the increasing consumer preference for buying single tracks as opposed to albums, even if there was no free music available whatsoever I think you’d see a massive decline in music industry sales because of things like iTunes. Pretty much all the studies I’ve seen on piracy indicate that it actually leads to people buying more music, not less.

Look, the math that these lawyers use is indefensible, and clearly made up.  But an 8 billion dollar loss in an industry that was already shortchanging the content creators (musicians) is a serious thing and shouldn’t be laughed at.  

It wasn’t DRM that did it, it was free music raining from the sky that did it, even ‘legitimate’ free music, like that coming from youtube and myspace.  

Piracy isn’t the only problem the music industry is facing. The biggest is probably the selling of single tracks instead of full albums by people who just want that one song (1/10 of the revenue that a hit song used to generate). There’s the collapse of the economy – people are simply spending less on entertainment. There are devoted music fans who no longer by music from RIAA labels because of their sue-the-customer response to file sharing. There are more forms of mass entertainment competing for the customer’s dollar. Many artists are able to record and release music and build a fan base without ever going near a record label. And a lot of piracy is driven by the fact that the music people are looking for is often not yet available in their country because despite the internet the labels can’t figure out how to release albums worldwide on the same day, or make their back catalogs easily accessible online.

All of these things, including piracy, have hurt the recording industry, but thanks to the iPod, people are listening to more music and a greater variety of music than ever before. Musicians who never had a chance to be heard because they didn’t fit some record company’s mold or some radio station’s narrow format are able to reach people and find fans and make a more personal connection with them than was ever possible before.

Napster was good. The RIAA should have made a deal with Napster. They might have discovered untold riches. Hell, they should have invented Napster and had total control!

But all we ever hear from the RIAA is “piracy, piracy, piracy.”

People love to find villains to blame for things! But your argument is just as dubious as octopus’. As I said in my last comment, this loss of revenue probably isn’t the “fault” of anyone acting badly (whether piraters or the lawsuit-happy MPAA (edit: sorry, RIAA)) but rather due to a shift in purchasing patterns from albums to individual tracks. There probably isn’t any possible “business model” that would get sales back up to what they were in the past when people mostly bought albums, if that’s not what most people are interested in any more.

“Seeing that the Nielsen stats are readily accessible and accepted as legitimate, why then are we left with the impression that music sales and revenue are down? The simple answer is album sales and overall gross revenue from music sales (CD and downloads) are down. The increase in music purchases comes from the people buying individual songs. The decrease in revenue comes from a $0.99 song costing less than a $16.98 physical album as well as fewer purchases of physical CDs.”

Gah, there’s always one.

It’s not theft, it’s the violation of a copyright license. Stealing a CD is theft; illegally downloading an MP3 is potentially lost revenue.

In terms of content though, 100% agree there’s a whole wealth of better talks out there.

I truly implore you to watch it. Coincidentally, to remember the name of the speaker I had to refer to my quote book, where I had noted his epic line, “The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it is justice.’ Above this I noticed I had a quote from Cory’s book FTW: ‘What is banking if not pressing buttons and asking everyone to make believe that the outcomes have value?’ which resonates strongly with Reid’s talk above.