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The claim that file sharing is not damaging the music industry but rather it led to an increase of its business was backed up with numerous studies over the last couple of years.TorrentFreak points to the latest such study concerning the Norwegian music market, study which proves that artists are not affected by file sharing (not negatively, at least) – in fact, they have enjoyed a growth in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. The founding contradicts what music labels have been stating all these years – that the digital era has seriously hurt the musicians worldwide.According to the study focused on Norway, the total amount the industry is collecting has increased by 4% and this is due mainly to live shows (from 1.4 billion Norwegian kronor in 1999 to 1.9 billion in 2009).While this growth might not be very impressive, things change a bit when we focus on the artists revenue which more than doubled with an increase of 114%.Says TorrentFreak: “After an inflation adjustment, artist revenue went up from 255 million in 1999 to 545 million kronor in 2009.Some of the growth can be attributed to the fact that the number of artists increased by 28% in the same time period. However, per artist the yearly income still saw a 66% increase from 80,000 to 133,000 kronor between 1999 and 2009. In conclusion, one could say that artists are far better off now than they were before the digitization of music started.”On one hand, the Norwegian government subsidizes the music industry significantly (this is one of the four revenue streams aforementioned), on the other hand, this subsidization only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009 which leaves live revenue as the main factor in this equation.Just like similar studies in Sweden and the UK, the new research kind of dismisses the complaints made by the recording industry and some musicians that artists are undeniably true victims of the file sharing phenomenon. Since the music business swallows even more money, the real problem remains (as we have said countless times before) the adaptation that the industry still delays with unpardonable obstinacy.To wrap up – the loss of record sales that holds the digitalization of the industry accountable has not hurt the Norwegian artists as it has the record labels. Generally, record sales generate 20% income for musicians, and despite the decrease in record sales, there’s always a growth in one or more of the other three income sources to make up for the loss.
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Topic: Musicians Revenue Higher than before the File Sharing Phenomenon, Says Study (Read 717 times)
