Tech-savvy pop fans hit sales

Clean-living musician Moby is the latest star to make his voice heard on the subject of MP3s and CD burning.

But rather than condemning those who don't pay for music, he has suggested that illegal copying is changing the odds of who makes it to the top of the music business.

Moby said recently in his online journal that decreasing sales of his latest album, 18, were due to a phenomenon where "bands which have very technically savvy fans will see their records do poorly in the charts, whereas artists which have less technically savvy fans will do quite well".

"This is owing to the fact that bands/artists with technically savvy fans will end up downloading music or burning CDs, where as less tech-savvy fans will end up buying their CDs," he said.

By way of an example aside from his album, Moby said that pop punk outfit Weezer is suffering such an effect.

"Weezer sold a lot of records in the first week of release, but since then sales have dropped off considerably, even though they have radio hits," he said.

There could be twice as many copies of Weezer's new record in existence in the form of MP3s or burned CDs as have actually been sold, he added. "Pink outsells Weezer in the States not so much because she's more popular, but because her fans are more likely to buy, as opposed to burn, her CDs."

Taking care not to come down on one side of the fence like so many other artists, Moby has neither criticised or praised the onset of new technologies.

"My concern is the way that the industry looks at the success of a musician or of a record that sells or doesn't sell," he explained. "Popular artists traditionally sold a lot of records. In the future that might not be the case. In fact, even now that might not be the case."