WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? CD Sales Dive And P2P Usage Stays Steady As Supreme Court Rules And RIAA Brings More Suits

Two articles in Digital Music News seem strangely related:

"Album sales in the US took a bath last week, with several high-profile releases coming off of their peaks. Overall, sales levels were down 12.2 percent over the previous period, with a total of 10.5 million units sold.

Compared to the same period in 2004, the latest figures lagged by 16.7 percent. Chart-toppers included Coldplay, Mariah Carey, the Foo Fighters, and the Black Eyed Peas, though none crossed the 200,000 sales threshold. Meanwhile, overall 2005 sales levels remain significantly behind comparable

2004 totals, with a 7.6 percent gap reflecting two disappointing recent quarters. Data was compiled by Nielsen Soundscan."

And…

The RIAA has issued a new wave of lawsuits against 784 individual file uploaders, with users on Kazaa, Limewire, and Grokster targeted. The latest round brings the total number of lawsuits to well over 12,000 since the legal campaign began in September, 2003…The organization also pointed to a stepped-up educational effort…"

…casual file-sharers seem mostly unaware or uninterested in the (recent Supreme Court ) ruling. According to data supplied by BigChampagne, between 5.2 million to 5.4 million people were actively swapping files on peer-to-peer networks Tuesday, the day after the trial. That is indistinguishable from previous days, despite heavy press coverage following the Supreme Court ruling…"

When will the labels and the RIAA learn that their efforts are too little too late? People have learned to love free music and will find ways to get it.

And what other industry makes friends with their customer base by suing them?