In a post on the RIAA blog, VP of Reaserach Joshua P. Friedlander titled “Nobody Stole The Pie“ argues that the decline in music sales is like the story of the same name by Sonia Levitin. In it the town of Little Digby annually bakes a giant lollyberry pie. When one year the celebrated pie is gone, all the townsfolk who had picked away at it bit by bit claim it was “Not I who stole the pie".
“... the top 10 albums in 2009 sold a total of 21 million copies, and the top 10 tracks totaled 36 million paid downloads. But the top 10 albums in 1999 totaled 55 million in sales ..top sellers fell by more than 50%.In the last 10 years, the major record labels' direct employment in the United States fell from about 25,000 people in 1999 to less than 10,000 today - a drastic reduction of over 60% in people who enable the creation and development of new music."
...So if the investments dry up, and fewer new artists are able to be developed, will filesharers who stole bit by bit look at each other and say it was “Not I" who stole the pie?"
