Cdn music sales down 35 per cent in first quarter of 2007: recording group

TORONTO (CP) - Sales of CDs, music DVDs and other "physical" music formats have fallen 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2007, says the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The group says the drop is due, in large part, to Internet file swapping and digital piracy.

"We've experienced sizable short-term drops before, but nothing compares to the drastic numbers we're seeing so far this year," Graham Henderson, president of the association, said in a release.

The group cited numbers from market research firm Pollara indicating there were 20 million songs downloaded legally in Canada in 2006, compared with 1.3 billion illegal downloads.

The latest drop comes after CD sales by Canadian artists fell seven per cent from 2005 to 2006, the group said, referring to Nielsen SoundScan's tracking of Canada's top 200 albums.

"Independent research, academic studies and common sense all point in the same direction - that file-swapping and counterfeiting, and the decline in music sales, are closely linked," Henderson said.

The recording association has been urging a clampdown on illegal downloads and Henderson called the most recent sales numbers a "wake-up call" for the federal government.

www.cria.ca

© The Canadian Press, 2007