Enlightening record industry facts

The ongoing war over peer-to-peer file sharing (i.e. Napster et al) is a favourite subject of mine. I recently read this analysis of record company financial data that was pretty revealing. For example, there were almost 12,000 (down to 27,000 from 38,000) fewer new releases for the consumer to choose from in 2001 than 1999, but sales only dropped by 4.1 percent. Another one: The price of the average CD has increased by 8%, up to US $14.23.