Global recorded music sales fall almost $1.5bn amid increased piracy

Think that illegal downloading is a victimless crime? Think again! UK loses mantle as third-largest music market after 'physical' sales of CDs collapse by almost a fifth


Global recorded music sales fell by almost $1.5bn (£930m) last year as digital piracy continued to take its toll on the industry, with the UK losing its mantle as the third-largest music market after "physical" sales of CDs collapsed by almost a fifth.
Global recorded music revenues fell 8.4% last year, about $1.45bn, to $15.9bn according to the annual Recording Industry in Numbers report by international music industry body the IFPI.

Overall physical sales, the term used in the industry for sales of products such as CDs, fell by 14.2% year on year to $10.4bn.

Digital revenues grew by 5.3% year on year to $4.6bn to account for 29% of all recorded music revenues. However, the rate of digital revenue growth has halved year on year as the industry continues to struggle with piracy and winning consumers over to legal download models.

The world's two largest markets, the US and Japan, took a hammering last year accounting for 57% of the total global decline in trade revenues. In 2009 the two countries accounted for 80% of the global decline.

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SXSW film: The pros and cons of geek domination

South by Southwest's film festival shows that it is now fanboys and bloggers, rather than 'professional' critics, whom the industry likes to court. Catherine Shoard finds out why...

There are two rooms at the disposal of those reporting from South by Southwest (SXSW). Both have grey canvas walls and a watercooler, and are on the top floor of the Austin Convention Centre (think Kubrick does Comfort Inn). To enter the press suite you need to have been previously OKed by the press officer and to work for an approved media organisation. To gain access to the blogger lounge, all you need is your festival pass (anybody's, for a fee), and to register your email address. A blog is not a requirement.


So guess which one is light and spacious, with lush carpets and a fleet of iPads, a free bar, popcorn, hot snacks, live music and keynote speakers? And which one feels a bit like working inside a filing cabinet? The press suite does have complimentary coffee, a sporadic cheese platter and helpful staff. But there's little doubt which set of writers has been identified as the better bet to butter up.

Find out more by clicking on the headline...

Is the age of the critic over?

Guardian critics reflect on how social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and myDigg, fit into the perennial debate on cultural elitism....

Miranda Sawyer, broadcaster and Observer radio critic: 'Twitter has made it easier for critics to hear other people's opinions. Even then, though, you tend to hear similar views to your own'

Jessa Crispin, editor-in-chief of Bookslut: 'The tussle, the argument, the fun of criticism is now online'
 
Philip French, Observer film critic: 'It could be that bad criticism might drive out serious writing'

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A quarter of a century for Back to the Future

As Back to the Future celebrates its 25th anniversary, Catherine Shoard examines just what it was about this genre-defying time-travel caper that captured her generation's imagination.

For me, a time before Back to the Future exists only in theory. Some films embed themselves so early and deep in your psyche they take on the status not of works of art, nor even cultural relics from your childhood. They feel like vital organs. Remove their influence and the whole structure constructed on top could collapse. Erase my early exposure to Back to the Future and I fear I'd disappear from existence, like Marty McFly at the Enchantment Under the Sea ball in 1955, when his parents still haven't kissed and his fingers slip from the frets of his cherry-red Gibson 335 guitar and start to fade in front of his eyes (a scene I laboriously immortalised in poster paints at primary school)...

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Postmodern Media - The new wave of fan films

A couple of clicks away on the web are scores of films made by fans – by turns hilarious, ingenious and ambitious. Lurking among their makers might be Hollywood's next generation. Jane Graham guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 May 2010

Many still regard them as flatulent waste products of the socially deficient unemployed-layabout community. In most cases, they're pretty much right. But it looks increasingly likely that some of the amateur fan films that pervade YouTube and other online broadcasters will one day be cherished by movie-lovers as the formative works of the next generation of cutting-edge film-makers.

The idea of the fan film – an amateur, not-for-profit work inspired by a commercial movie, TV show or comic book – isn't new. Even before science fiction conventions in the 1970s began to provide sizeable audiences for homemade homages to much-loved sci-fi/fantasy franchises, teenage movie geeks such as Hugh Hefner and Batman fan Andy Warhol were finding their film-making feet making short and shaky tributes to their favourite flicks.

What has changed, in ways that could have a serious impact on commercial cinema in the next decade, is the level of quality, professionalism and ambition in the cream of the contemporary fan-film crop. The wide availability of cheap and portable high-calibre equipment, instant distribution through the internet, and the increased involvement of acting and film-school graduates, means that the most popular offerings are no longer characterised by (in the words of veteran fan film-maker Larry Longstreth) "some goofy dipshit with access to a few costumes on the top of a parking deck". They're just as likely to be sharp, witty, original pieces of work with impressive production values and strong performances.

These films take themselves, and their audiences, very seriously, and find reward in doing so. Some of them, like last year's highly ambitious Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hunt for Gollum, were preceded by a number of teasers and trailers "announced" online before the film's unveiling – in Gollum's case at the Sci-Fi London film festival. Many of them – like the full-length, lovingly rendered Return of the Ghostbusters – will be screened in independent cinemas as part of fan-organised events all over the world. Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer, a clever, knowing, and very funny parody of the Oscar-chasing Hollywood promo, made by a couple of film-school graduates in Atlanta, had half a million hits on the first weekend it went up on YouTube in March – that's 499,989 more people than went to see Uma Thurman in Motherhood on its opening weekend in the UK.

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Here's three of the best fan movies...

Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer - this is a work of genius...

Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney took 10 days "from first draft to final edit" to compose this well-crafted parody of Hollywood trailer clichés and have seen their stock rise.

See it: bit.ly/b70pRr

Wes Anderson Spider-Man

This trailer for the new Spider-Man – if Anderson were directing – was inspired by 20-year-old student Jeff Loveness's passion for "absurdist" comedy such as Monty Python and The Office.

See it: bit.ly/by7bwa

The Hunt for Gollum

Despite its paltry budget of £3,000, British computer engineer Chris Bouchard's Lord of the Rings prequel is seriously slick. The 40-minute-long work has notched up more than 5m views.

See it: bit.ly/BSoVy