Shipments of singles fell by nearly 40 percent last year, afterrelatively flat growth in the two previous years, the Recording IndustryAssociation of America said. Overall, CD sales were up slightly for theyear, compared with 1999 sales, however.
The industry said the drop in singles sales was "principally brought onby new options provided by the Internet."
"There's no question these numbers are disappointing, but the futurelooks bright for the industry and consumers alike," RIAA ChiefExecutive Officer Hilary Rosen said in a statement. "I believe a road hasbeen paved to enable a legitimate online music market to take hold andflourish. The appetite for music remains high and our member companiesare poised to meet new demand."
The drop in singles sales, which account for less than one percent ofthe industry's revenues, doesn't amount to a scathing indictment of theeffect of music-swapping services like Napster on the music industry,however.
Overall shipments of music to retailers lagged in the second half of theyear, but the industry association attributed that in part to theslowing economy and consolidation among the large music outlets.
The recording industry has long argued that services like Napster, whichallow unrestricted access to a huge library of free music, wouldultimately cut into their record sales. To date, statistics have not yetbacked this claim up, however. Sales of CDs have consistently grown,although not spectacularly, since the popularity of file-swappingservices began exploding online.
One study did show that record sales near college campuses, where a highnumber of Napster users are concentrated, have fallen. Butinterpretations of those figures differed, as some experts said thedecline could also be due in part to college students buying their musiconline.
Rosen has also said that actual sales figures don't matter, however. Theindustry's arguments againstNapster and similar services rest on the copyright owners' and artists'rights to control their own work, not on the economic effects of piracy,she has said.
In the course of the year, the industry posted revenues of $14.2billion, down nearly 2 percent from 1999. Contributing to the declinewere also drops in the numbers of vinyl records and singles, cassettesalbums, music videos, and an almost total disappearance of the cassettesingle.
Revenues from CDs rose by just over 3 percent, despite the end ofminimum pricing plans that had triggered antitrust investigations fromfederal and state regulators.