Fwd: Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 12:16:32 -0400
From: Barry Ritholtz <britholtz () maximgrp com>
Subject: Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of "Lost Sales"
To: dave () farber net

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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Big Picture: Macro perspectives on the Capital Markets, Economy, and 
Geopolitics
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments



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