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| Music fans buying merchandise but fewer CDs |
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With record sales down and music companies looking for ways to create newrevenue streams, there are some novel - and increasingly expensive - itemsbeing sold alongside the traditional T-shirts and posters at concerts. And some fans seem more than willing to buy almost anything that's put in front of them. With the slowdown in album sales and a new reliance on concerts andmerchandise to bring in revenue, giving fans what they want has become increasingly important to the music industry, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of music industry magazine Pollstar. "It used to be 20 years ago that artists toured to help sell records, but today they tour to make money and hopefully, maybe, they'll sell a few more records along the way," Bongiovanni said. "Merchandise sales are now a very significant part of their revenue streams, to the point it wouldn't surprise me if most (popular) recording artists make more money off their merchandise than they do off of their recording."            |
