RIAA DROPS MIDYEAR SHIPMENT NUMBERS

Just a little more than a month before entering the fourth quarter, the RIAA's accountants at Pricewaterhouse Coopers have finally put their calculators down to give the numbers for the first half of 2000. Among the findings that took nearly two months to come up with: 420 million CDs have shipped thus far this year, with a dollar value of $5.7 billion. That's a growth just shy of 10% over the same period last year. DVD music videos were up 71.3%, at 1.4 million units.

Cassettes have about 8% of the overall market, representing $303 million worth of business, at list price. Singles shipments dropped 45.2% to 22.7 million units.

That's a lot of numbers, so here's a quote from RIAA President and CEO, hilary rosen',390,400);">hilary rosen',390,400);">Hilary Rosen: "Despite the excitement felt by music lovers and record companies alike over the positive potential of the Internet, for the time-being, loyalty to the physical product remains as is evident by these midyear shipment numbers. CDs will be around for a very long time. You see, they're made of aluminum and coated in plastic, the combination of those two means that it takes nearly 10,000 years for them to biodegrade. Jewel boxes take even longer."

Look for the 2000 year-end numbers toward the middle of March, or possibly later if the NCAA finals include teams from colleges with good accounting schools.