Music Industry Should Embrace Illegal File Sharing
Here’s an article I remembered reading and dug up for you. This party flies in the face of what I wrote in that previous thread “Amazon VS. iTunes” regarding DRM and the music distribution model, which is why I wanted to resurrect it for you here.
I had argued that lower priced music would be the best way to combat illegal file sharing; and this was a huge plus for the Amazon MP3 store, as you could pick up the latest and greatest albums for often times under $5. Why download illegally when you can do it the right way for so cheap, especially when all of these P2P clients could potentially expose your computer to malware and other software with bad intentions?
Well, apparently, the right way still isn’t the most convenient way. Remember when Radiohead released “In Rainbows”? For a certain amount of time, you could go to their website and download the album, paying what you wanted for it, even nothing! A study found that through October, when the album was offered, huge numbers of people still downloaded the album illegally, rather than going through Radiohead’s site to get the album in a legal fashion.
A lot of speculation was generated regarding how much the band would actually make through this method of album release versus a more traditional one. They pulled the plug on it after just three months, releasing the album in traditional formats leading you to surmise that cash flow from the online release was less than spectacular. The traditional album sales sky rocketed to to the top of the charts, and most attribute that success to the buzz generated around the online promotion. Radiohead then caught flack for being insincere with their intentions, using the new format as simply a hype generator rather than harboring legitimate hopes of an industry revolution. Trent Reznor’s was the loudest voice to question Radiohead’s motives. In the end, the band’s manager did say that they were unlikely to do it again, so take that for what it’s worth.
All that said, unless society undergoes a massive paradigm shift to where illegal music downloads are not the norm, the music industry must find a new model to make money.
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