Music Sales Drop 6%, RIAA Says

Sales of recorded music and music videos slipped 6% to about $11.9 billion last year, according to the industry’s leading trade organization.

The drop in the dollar value of the U.S. market reflects a 7.1% decline in shipments of compact discs, which account for the vast majority of the industry’s volume. Data from the Recording Industry Assn. of America show record companies shipped about 745.9 million CDs last year.

The decline, however, is an improvement from 2002, when CD shipments plunged 8.9%. Sales began picking up in the fall amid the industry’s widely publicized lawsuits against computer users who allegedly traded copyrighted music for free on the Internet.

The RIAA said its figures did not include legal digital downloads, a small but increasing segment of the market. The data measure product shipped to retailers -- not sold to customers -- and distributed to record clubs and mail-order catalogs.

Jeff Leeds