Illegal music downloads have mixed local impact

The rapidly changing music industry faced even more bad news late last week when Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, announced plans to eliminate 800 jobs.\nThis announcement comes on top of the 550 jobs Universal has cut since late 2002, accounting for an 11 percent decrease of its total workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal.\nOther top music companies have been hit hard as well since the advent of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa. The Wall Street Journal cited Sony Music Entertainment's elimination of 1,000 jobs in March, and EMI's elimination of 1,900 jobs since late 2001. \nOther companies such as Time Warner and BMG are considering mergers, which could result in even more job cuts. \nUniversal Music Group Chairman and CEO Doug Morris told The Wall Street Journal last week that piracy is to blame for the cutbacks.\n"This is really a direct result of ... the physical and Internet piracy which is causing tremendous suffering in the music business," Morris said.\nThe problems of big music companies have had mixed effects locally. Charlie Titche, owner and manager of All Ears on 10th Street, has seen no decline in business as a result of years of Internet piracy. \n"We fill a niche that can't be filled by Internet downloads," Titche said. "We carry things that can't be downloaded anywhere else, or people will download a sample of something and come here to get more. Our customers are more likely to buy something by say Number Party than Britney Spears. We don't cater to the Top 40 mainstream."\nBrett Hayden, manager of TD's CDs and LPs on Kirkwood, however has seen a big dip in business since he began working there 10 years ago.\n"Everything was pretty good for awhile, then people started being able to copy CDs right before Napster came out, and things started going downhill," Hayden said. "Now people just say they can download things so they don't have to buy them."\nSales have picked up a little this year, which Hayden attributes to the lawsuits the RIAA has filed against file-sharers.\n"The lawsuits scare people," he said. "They're scared of getting in trouble and having to pay hefty fines, but the recording industry has to do this if they want to make money."\nHayden also believes that TD's is doing better than a lot of other places because it's a local store.\n"A lot of the more liberal people and hippies you find on college campuses don't want to buy from a corporate place," he said. "They want to find the local market, not some guy or corporation that already has millions."\nIn September, Universal attempted to boost sales on its CDs by dropping its suggested price to $13, though Hayden says this is only a short-term solution.\n"They're telling all the papers they're lowering prices, but in the long term, that only means less money for the stores. Maybe it would help if all labels would lower prices though," he said.