BAD NEWS BEARERS: Is the music industry...

BAD NEWS BEARERS: Is the music industry doing as well as reported?

It’s a question that even the Recording Industry Assn. of America, which represents the nation’s major record companies, is asking.

Usually, the association’s figures--compiled from reports from record companies on the number of albums actually shipped to stores--are the last word on the state of the music business.

But so many questions have been raised about the accuracy of the 1992 total--up 17% to more than $9 billion during a recession--that the RIAA is expected to hold off on this month’s scheduled release of its mid-year figures while it determines whether its past statistics were indeed accurate.

SoundScan, the firm that tracks point-of-purchase sales for an estimated 70% of the nation’s market, may be called on by the RIAA to provide additional data to supplement the existing methodology, according to sources.

“Until we can be assured that these are the best possible figures to reflect the business our companies are doing, we will withhold releasing mid-year numbers,” says Tim Sites, RIAA vice president of communications. “That doesn’t say that the numbers weren’t reliable before.”