Steep Drop In CD Sales Hurts New York-Based Music Performance Fund
NEW YORK (AP) -- The steep decline in compact disc sales is hurting a New York-based nonprofit that funds free concerts in the U.S. and Canada.
The Music Performance Fund was created in 1948. As part of the contract between record labels and the American Federation of Musicians, the fund receives a few pennies for every CD or vinyl record sold.
The fund does not collect any money from music downloads.
Negotiations for a new contract are under way. But meanwhile, trustee John Hall tells The Wall Street Journal that the fund could go out of business.
U.S. sales of CDs, cassettes and LPs dropped from more than $780 million in 2000 to about $212 million in 2010.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
