p2pnet - rss feed: IFPI rebuts Oberholzer/Strumpf study
p2pnet.net News:- Big Music’s IFPI is upset with Felix Oberholzer (Harvard Business School) and Koleman Strumpf (UNC Chapel Hill) whose detailed analysis of the effect p2p file sharing has on record sales made a mockery of entertainment industry facts and figures.
The Oberholzer/Strumpf study gives chapter and verse on precisely where the Big Five have gone astray in their presentations of how file sharing is destroying the music industry.
However, "The international recording industry has a number of issues with both the findings and methodology of the study released today by the Harvard Business School and University of North Carolina," says the enforcement unit, gong on to list the three most important.
Last among the points the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) makes is this:
"Research by our own national groups in five major markets (USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany) shows that downloaders are twice as likely to buy less music than they are to buy more."
Twice as likely to buy less music than they are to buy more, eh? That should set the record straight.
The other points are:
* all other major surveys show that file-sharing has an enormous impact on sales (by Forrester, Enders and Impact during 2002/03).
* Harvard’s results are skewed because they have made the mistake of using the fourth quarter (of 2002) as a basis for some of their findings. The fourth quarter is the busiest sales period when around 40% of all sales are made. Naturally any study trying to show the relationship between file-sharing and sales needs to take a longer term view.
