The Future of Music Distribution

This is my interview about the future of music distribution with Gerd Leonhard, one of the foremost media futurists. You can also get it as an MP3.

Thanks to Miro Gechev for the technical side of some things. ;-)

Court case could force one strike-you’re out on downloaders in AUS

Genious plan. As research commissioned by the Canadian government has shown, “among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing.” So the ones getting disconnected will actually be the biggest customers of these companies.

Oh and besides that, it’s also a huge infringement on the freedoms of Australian citizens, but they should be getting used to that by now.

Norwegian ISP Telenor Rejects Demands to Block The Pirate Bay

The above image shows some replies to an article talking about EMI calling for ‘music pirates’ to be unplugged by their ISPs. These are your customers. Market to them. Don’t make them angry.

EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony have already had some success in Ireland:

“In a settlement between record companies EMI, Sony, Universal, Warner and Ireland’s largest ISP, Eircom has agreed to work with the record industry to combat illegal downloading.

The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), which represents the major music groups, is to begin compiling lists of web sites that it claims are damaging its business.
IRMA will then apply for a court order, requiring Eircom and other internet providers to block access to these sites.
Eircom will then not contest any court order, meaning that the requests are automatically granted. “We have said we would not oppose an action to the courts,” said a spokesman for Eircom.”

Source: Zeropaid.

Apparently this comes in addition to a “three strikes, you’re out” measure already taken. So the four major labels have been ‘successful’, although it remains to be seen if their actions will actually lead to more profit or not. There have been previous studies which pointed out so-called ‘piracy’ actually stimulates record sales & revenue from live events.

To be fair, EMI is really trying to embrace technology, as they are the first to make use of iTunes Pass new ‘fan’ system (press release here). They’re comfortable with traditional ways of of making money through new media - how about new ways of making money through new media.

Instead of using that powerful lobby to target customers, imagine what type of money it could bring in if they licensed the ISPs. Pressure the government to make new laws, so that you don’t have to take down innocent websites and unplug users.

But we’ll see how that goes. Popular torrent tracker The Pirate Bay is on trial now and prosecution’s having a very hard time.

Stop download flood, says EMI chief executive

The bottom of the article talks about EMI’s losses and their borrowings. I guess they’re panicking and trying to control a medium which they can’t.

Article found via Media Futurist @gleonhard who adds:

“Ouch - will they EVER learn? License the ISPs - don’t unplug the users!!!”

He has a good point. If this were the 80’s, it would be like scrambling somebody’s radio for taping songs. Except the internet has far more functions and is essential for most connected people, unlike the radio has ever been.

This fact COULD be a big advantage to the music industry. The internet is essential for 90% of its users (or more?), radio was never essential for more than 1% of its users. Besides that the internet is an interactive medium and people are a lot more approachable. People are online more and more time per day, people are actively using it (as opposed to radio), but they’re cutting off potential customers - and, more likely, existing customers.

Why are they having so much trouble understanding the amount of money there is to be made? *sigh*

Australian government banks $2 billion from ‘illegal’ P2P

Now here’s an interesting story. The Australian government apparently owns a certain percentage of a particular ISP (click the link for the details). This ISP has made a huge profit last year and this made the Australian government some money also. ISPs make money by selling bandwith and of course a considerable chunk of that bandwith was used for illegal peer-to-peer filesharing. From this chunk alone, the linked article argues, Australia made $2 billion last year.

They’re doing a good job on keeping everybody happy… The lobbyists, themselves and errr… oh no, not the ISPs and consumers (aka citizens) that risk getting prosecuted.