BUSINESS: P2P is NOT destroying the CDs’ business!

Two researchers, F. Oberholzer from Harvard and K. Strumpf from the University of North Carolina, published recently a Harvard Business School study about the music companies’ allegation that the Internet file sharing is responsible for the drastic reduction in sales. They proved that this connection simply doesn’t exist!!

Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates. Moreover, these estimates are of moderate economic significance and are inconsistent with claims that file sharing is the primary reason for the recent decline in music sales.