Each year since 2002, when music sales began to drop, the RIAA (Recording
Industry Association of America) have released pessimistic and unsurprising
reports about the state of the « recording union » industry. This
group, which formed in 1952 to represent the interests of the recording
industry in the United States, consists of a large number of record labels and
distributors who produce and distribute about 90 % of recorded music sold in
the US (source
Wikipedia).
Unfortunately it has become unpopular, due to its current « witch hunt » against piracy which caused more than twenty thousand lawsuits in these last years, the RIAA has argued that P-2-P is the principal reason why music sales decline and considers most web surfers as potential pirates. This institution is also one of the most active pro-DRM lobbies. However this digital rights management dramatically limits the use and enjoyment of digital songs, and therefore is clearly the main cause to why the legal downloading services don't manage to reach the growth they deserve.
To my mind and not only mine, The RIAA like most other entities which defend their national record industry, go the wrong way in their struggle with the music industry crisis. They seem to misunderstand the new trends which shatter the world music industry and certainly go after the wrong person.