Still As Life

From - Microsoft Clipart

Why does it not surprise me in the slightest, that despite the fact that a study has proven that P2P music downloading actually has increased CD sales in Canada as quoted below, the Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) swears black and blue that this could not possibly be relevant in Australia?

"...our analysis of the Canadian P2P file-sharing subpopulation suggests that there is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing. We estimate that the effect of one additional P2P download per month is to increase music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year."

According to a telephone survey conducted in Australia, apparently it has the opposite effect, and of course logically, if people are getting music for free, then why would they download it, right?

I disagree with this. I am inclined to believe that the Canadian study is correct, and relevant in Australia. I mean seriously, who is going to go out and buy CD's of a band they have never heard of? Thats no sales for that band from thousands of prospective listeners. However, if someone downloads some of their songs because they were recommended by someone, or even just because they were curious to see what they sound like, if they like what they hear, they are far more likely to go buy an album.

The same study found that there was no clear relation between legal and illegal music downloading, but according to some figures shown as part of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, legal download sales have increased!

"Sales figures for the first six months of the year, released by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), show total physical music sales dropped by almost 16 per cent in unit terms, but legal download sales increased by just under 90 per cent." From - Sydney Morning Herald

So if legal download sales have increased by almost 90% shouldn't that be a pretty good reason for physical music sales to drop? Even if it's not the entire reason that should really be taken into account rather than saying it is caused entirely by illegal downloads.

As Rob, the author of the www.demonbaby.com blog points out in his article after OiNK was shut down almost 2 weeks ago, the music industry is outdated and has not kept up with technology. I know I myself am in no way interested in legally downloading music. It's all low quality and far too expensive! I would much prefer to buy the CD's and actually know that I am getting high quality music rather than the legally downloadable music that at most seems to be 192kbps and is full of annoying DRM. Seriously guys, why would I pay more to get something of lower quality that has its usage restricted through digital rights management? I'm not interested in single tracks and entirely digital collections. I want entire albums in a tangible form that I can do what I want with. Why on earth would I not buy anything I download when I want it as high quality as I can get it. 192kbps does not cut it. Update your business model or lose customers is all I have to say to the labels that are part of the RIAA. I know I personally will be doing exactly as Rob suggests, and I won't be buying music that is published by any label that is part of the RIAA. Thanks to the RIAA Rader website, it's really easy to tell which are and which aren't.

Nine Inch Nails have the right idea, making their entire new album available online for free for the basic version and only $US5 for the higher quality versions. With an offer like that, I wouldn't even have to think twice about buying it.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rob, if we stop giving the major labels our money by purchasing CD's from them, they will have to change the way they do business, and maybe then we can get a reasonable service from them. You know, maybe Google should start up their own label, they would no doubt do a better job than the major labels out there at the moment.

Labels: music, politics, rants