Online dvd rental canada

Read, watch, and/or listen. Those words are quickly becoming options for bookstores' customers as "bookstores" become transformed into multimedia centers. That means these retailers are supplementing their books selections with CDs and DVDs. Customers can buy the book and/or the movie based on the book, and/or a CD of the book so it can be listened to while doing something else, and/or a CD of music that might be the movie's soundtrack or tunes to put the reader's mind into the book's time period or place. The logic is that people who love great books tend to love great music and film.

Between the DVD and CD market, DVDs is where the money is now, and the future looks bright. While sales of CDs have slowed in recent months, market watchers predict a recovery.

According to the 2004 Annual Report of the Video Software Dealer Association (VSDA), consumer spending on DVD sales and rentals totaled $16 billion in 2003, a 40 percent increase over 2002. Music DVD sales rose more than 100 percent in 2003, surpassing more than 17 million units.

THE VSDA REPORTS THESE FINDINGS:

2003 was another record-setting year for DVDs and the industry. Consumer spending on sales and rental exceeded $22 billion.

* In 2003, home video contributed 60 percent of the revenues major U.S. movie studios earned from filmed entertainment.

* Combined consumer spending on sales and rental of VHS cassettes and DVDs reached $22.2 billion dollars.

* Consumer spending on DVD sales and rentals totaled $16 billion, a 40 percent increase over 2002.

* More than 90 percent of U.S. homes had a VCR player and over 53 percent of U.S. households had DVD players.

There are now more than 1,300 TV series on DVD titles representing 5 percent of all DVD titles.

* Consumer spending on TV products on DVDs was estimated at almost $1.5 billion.

* Music DVD sales rose more than 100 percent in 2003, surpassing more than 17 million units.

* There were more than 3,500 DVD music titles available by the end of 2003.

Sales of VHS cassettes and DVDs totaled $14 billion. This is a 16 percent increase over the $12.1 consumers spent in 2002.

* Consumers spent $8.2 billion renting VHS cassettes and DVDs. This compares to $8.3 billion in 2002.

* Fifty-three percent of rentals were on DVD.

* Sales of previously viewed DVDs and VHS cassettes were estimated at $860 million. 12.5 million homes had access to video-on-demand movies.

* Over 25 percent of U.S. homes are connected to the Internet through high-speed broadband connections.

* Revenue from VOD is not expected to reach $2.5 billion until 2008.

The music industry's sales of audio and music videos is in a small quandary. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organization that represents the recording industry worldwide, global sales of recorded music--audio and music video--grew by 1.7 percent in units and fell 1.3 percent in value in the first half of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003.

Audio sales fell by 2.7 percent in value, while the music video sector grew by 20.2 percent driven by DVD music video, which increased by 26.6 percent.

Interim sales of all audio and music video formats totaled $US 13.9 billion, compared to $US 14.1 billion in 2003.

The figures reflect a slowing of the rate of decline in music sales of the past four years. This is the best first-half year result achieved since 2000.

Sales in regional and individual territories varied widely, with the effects of unauthorized file-sharing on the internet and commercial piracy, among other factors, still affecting many of the world's markets.

The US music market is leading the recovery, while markets such as Canada, Germany and Japan are showing a substantial reduction in their rate of decline. But other markets including Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are still weak, and more recent reversals have hit sales in France and Australia.

Two bright spots are DVD music video, which continues to show strong growth and has helped offset the decline in audio formats. Meanwhile, the growth of legitimate digital music downloads which suggests a strong future for the online music market. These are not currently included in official industry figures.

Jay Berman, IFPI Chairman and CEO said: "There are some signs that the world's markets are beginning to recover, boosted by the continued growth of DVD music video, digital sales and added-value releases. However, markets continue to be hampered by the dual effects of commercial and Internet piracy. IFPI and its national groups are continuing to persuade music fans to download from legitimate music sites, and not file-share illegally. More and more consumers are using authorized download services--a distinctly positive sign."

The music industry is showing some signs of a rebound in the first half of 2004, with full-length CD shipments to retail outlets increasing by 10.2 percent compared to the same time period in 2003. It is the first time in five years that the first half of the year has experienced an overall increase in shipments of all formats combined. DVD music videos and licensed digital downloads also showed impressive growth, according to new data announced today by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

However, improvement in the performance of the CD format was not enough to make up for a multi-year period of decline. Compared to 2001, CD shipments to retail remained down by 4.3 percent, and overall product shipments to retail are down 9.8 percent.

Overall, CDs and all other audio and video music products shipped to retail increased by 8.5 percent in the first six months of 2004 (289 million units were shipped in the first half of 2004 vs. 267 million in the first half of 2003), while the dollar value of those shipments increased 4.5 percent. When including direct and special markets, the overall percentage growth for the first half of 2004 for units shipped, compared to a similar time frame in 2003, is 4.0 percent (349 million units versus 336 million.) The overall dollar value increase for all units shipped was 3.6 percent. In spite of gains made in some areas, the industry's top-selling albums, which are among the most heavily pirated, remained significantly down as compared to 2001: top 50 albums shipped 16.7 percent less in the first half of 2004, and the top 100 albums shipped 19.7 percent less. However, there has been some improvement in these categories in the last six months of 2004.

"The record industry has experienced some gains so far in 2004, but we are rising out of a deep hole and still have a long way to go," said Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA. "Piracy, both online and on the street, continues to hit the music community hard, and thousands have lost their jobs because of it." During the first half of 2004, record companies continued to develop innovative business strategies--aggressively making music available to a variety of authorized digital services, introducing new formats and offering an array of exciting new releases.

At the same time, the record industry, the RIAA and its partners in the music community have continued a variety of public education efforts, including: joining with the FBI to unveil a new anti-piracy warning and seal; expanding the acclaimed "I Download ... Legally" media campaign; and working with the university community to develop new programs to educate students about intellectual property laws, discourage illegal peer-to-peer use, and offer legitimate online music alternatives.

The RIAA, on behalf of the major record companies, has also continued and expanded legal efforts against individual file sharers. Copyright infringement lawsuits against thousands of illegal file sharers have sent a strong and essential note of deterrence and stemmed the wildfire-like growth of illicit peer-to-peer network use. As a reflection of a growing legitimate digital music marketplace, the RIAA, for the first time ever, included digital downloads in its semi-annual shipment report. For the first half of 2004, there were 58 million single tracks downloaded or burned from licensed online music services