I remember reading in a Rolling Stones a couple months ago that the Record Industry saw a 18% loss in sales. 18%!?!?! Thats not that bad folks! I mean the technology sector was hit hard, but these guys see a downturn and scream bloody murder.
From my angle it seems that they release crap music now (the newest CD I have boughten was Enigma's Voyageur, and thats far from the "popular" section), and poeple are downloading a lot more music (although probably less now that Kazzaa has been polluted) and they still only managed to 18% in sales. Of course it could be that they were running record sales the years before and didn't realize they might
actually go back to normal someday.
And with how anti-Republican and anti-governement Rolling Stones <magazine> is I believe that number to be either exactly true or just a tad bit inflated.