Jessenia Colon's List: Industry News

• while unit sales were up, revenue was down.
• the sales of digital downloads, which are historically cheaper than CDs, are rising to create higher unit sales, but less money is coming in.
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  n trying to bring expenses in line with revenue, audio publishers are, among other things, looking to cut production costs. "A lot of publishers are looking to see where they can trim without cutting down on quality."
• The APA study pointed out that CDs represented 65% of audio revenue and 46% of units sold in 2009, while digital downloads generated just 29% of revenue but 49% of all units sold.
• the demand for the price of digital downloads is to have it "go down, down, down.
• the industry may be realizing that it is overspending on production.
• the key things his group looks at, in addition to cutting production costs, are closely monitoring inventory and being conservative in printings.

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• Digital downloads have transformed the music industry--digital sales were $1.1 billion last year.
• downloading is reshaping the way audio is bought and sold.
• digital downloads still account for a relatively small part of audio publishers' overall revenue
• it is the fastest-growing segment of not only the audio industry but the entire publishing industry.
• Audible, the leading distributor to consumers, had an 83% revenue increase last year, to $63 million, and new customers for Audible's various subscription levels rose 67%, re 303,000.
• We're still years away from downloading becoming the dominant format
• the move away from traditional formats can't hurt retailers
• Early indications are that downloads are complementing sales of traditional formats. "We've not seen evidence of the digital format having a negative impact on CD format--just the opposite,"
• But digital will not replace CDs or even completely kill cassettes; it's an additional market."
• For digital, we do pay the authors a higher royalty rate, so digital growth is something that has made our authors happy.
• "With digital distribution, territorial rights are more important than ever," she said. The long license ensures that an audio company can sell a digital copy even when a work is no longer selling in stores.
• among the few publishers distributing their own downloads on their Web sites.
• there is money to be made in the digital download arena, the profit doesn't come solely from eliminating the pressing of CDs, physical packaging and warehouse space.
• there are production costs specific to the format, including encoding, converting, hosting, maintaining and delivering files.
• The most significant costs we face as an audio publisher are rights acquisition and recording, neither of which goes away with digital distribution,"

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