It’s time for humor

During The Pirate Bay trial, the music industry placed the blame for the decline in their revenues squarely on the shoulders of file-sharers. Their logic is clearly flawed, but it could sway the verdict if no alternative explanation is presented. So, if piracy isn’t to blame, then what is *actually* killing the music industry?

According to Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music, the decline in music revenues in the past 8 years can be fully attributed to (read: blamed on) illegal file sharing. If this were actually true, many of us might even respect his decision to go after pirates as fiercely as the music industry is doing right now. However, the past 8 years have seen a lot more changes in the landscape of home entertainment than Per Sundin would like to admit, and some of those changes have had a massive impact on music profitability — much more so than any amount of piracy.
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“Always keep mystery. Not many interviews.” There you have it, fledgling bands of the world. If you start right now and keep in mind those rules, as well as some key others, in about a decade’s time you can have the number one album in the world.

Coldplay tops the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s report listing the 50 best-selling albums of 2008. Coldplay moved 6.8 million copies of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, more than High School Musical 2, which had the number one spot in 2007.

Filling out the rest of the top 5 were AC/DC, the soundtrack to Mamma Mia!, Duffy, and Metallica, and who knows what this list is going to look like next year, now that the Earth has fallen through a wormhole into the year 1998. See the rest of the list below.
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