Tech Industry Report Finds Entertainment Industry Thriving Despite Complaints

A US technology industry report released Friday presents data showing that the entertainment industry has grown by 50 percent in the past decade with increased consumer spending, despite continuous calls by industry for greater protection of their intellectual property rights due to economic difficulty.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) commissioned the report [pdf] by Mike Masnick, a consultant who writes for publication Techdirt, who concluded that “we are living in a true Renaissance era for content.” The study, entitled, “The Sky is Rising,” was released at the MIDEM music business conference in Cannes.

Dramatic increases are documented in consumer spending, entertainment sector employment, movie box office revenues, worldwide entertainment industry value, music concert sales in the US, and choices for consumers globally.

“The numbers paint a quite a contrast from the vision of doom and gloom the entertainment industry has pointed to lately,” CCIA President & CEO Ed Black said in a release. “Having a more clear picture of the economic successes and challenges of the content industry will help lawmakers around the world as they consider policies like increased copyright enforcement. We can hope future proposals will be more proportional to the scope of the problem and not designed to subtract from one industry’s bottom line to potentially add to another industry’s profits.”