How do I explain it?  MP3 sales revenue also went up.

CD sales didn't go down because of piracy.  They went down because CDs are a dieing format.  Ask pretty much any economist.

Additionally they've done things like rise prices during poor economic times and reduce releases.  They're killing themselves.

It's like claiming VHS piracy for VHS sales dropping.  DVD was just the next big thing.

This isn't a "pirates excuse"  I don't pirate anythig.  Not even MP3s.  It's sound economic theory.

Total revenues for CDs, vinyl, cassettes and digital downloads in the U.S. dropped from a high of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $10.4 billion in 2008.

Besides coming back to the argument of pirates saying they do so because the product isn't worth the price.
When you can get the stuff for free, what exactly is worth the price ?
Not much............

Yeah, it's not like the US is in the biggest financial crisis since THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Nope.  That's definitly not happening.

Additionally.

Digitial music is cheaper then store music, since you have things like itunes where you can buy what you want.

The rise of internet shopping has made it so you can get new cds cheaper by going to dozens of websites... internet savy people never need to pay full price or in the case of many stores, above MSRP for Cds.

As was mentioned, They've reduced releases by something like 25% meaning their are less Cds for people to buy.

Not to mention they were in general slow to get up their digital music options even though it's what everbody wanted.  Even when MP3 players were starting to get popular most of the record companies weren't prepaired worth shit.

Gee... I wish i could blame something for when i screwed up my own buisness.

Untrue.  People are naturally conditioned to pay money for things.

Given the chance of getting something for free or paying a "modest" price for it... the vast majority of people feel guilty getting something for free.

Things gotten for free are naturally valued less then a similar or the exact same product you yourself would buy.  (With the exception of gifts since they often hold sentimental value.)

@kasz

True, but "most" people dont pirate to begin with. The very act of piracy is more often than not ovbious and willing acted upon. I have a modded Wii because Nintendo fails to bring updates and features on a regular basis as opposed to the Homebrew community, but how many people can say that honestly?

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe because in the early years of CDs people who were switching over were buying up hoards of old music as they replaced their entire record/tape collections. About the same time downloading picked up, most people had finished replacing all the old media.