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With CD sales on the rise and its local music proving popular both throughout the region and in the US, Mexico's industry is now working hard to resolve its publishing disputes, writes Cristina Otalora
The recording industry in Mexico - having recovered from the peso crisis of 1994 - is once again showing solid potential for growth, both in terms of sales and in renewed local efforts to fight piracy.
According to IFPI figures, music sales rose 10% in volume in 1997 to 68.6m units, worth $472.33m at retail. CD penetration continued to grow with 39.6m units sold compared with 32.3m in 1996, representing an annual unit growth of 22%. Meanwhile, cassette sales continued to fall, slipping from 30m units in 1996 to 28.8m in 1997. Sources say the decline is due to a combination of consumers' increasing acceptance of CD and the debilitating effect of piracy.
The same trends continued during the first quarter of this year. Manuel Prata, financial manager at local trade body Amprofon, says that 5.4m cassettes and 8m CDs were sold, representing around 9% growth over the previous year. This is good news indeed for the country, which is the second-largest in the Latin region behind Brazil. It may well now be on its way to recapturing the heights of its former glory year, 1994, when 75.9m units...