In what ways has the music industry reacted to piracy?

Context

Why have you chosen to research this topic?

I have chosen to look into this topic because I am interested to learn when and how piracy first became a serious issue. In the process, I can learn about the schemes involved in reducing piracy such as Spotify and Virgin Media. Then by looking into each scheme I can see how successful and effective each has been and then I can look into the reasons behind this. I can also look at the different ways of getting music illegally and how the music industry is fighting against this practice.

Why is it Interesting?

Piracy is a hugely wide and effective concept within the media industry and it will be interesting comparing the reasons behind the successes of the schemes which have tried to reduce its effect. New schemes are also being produced and researching there development and intentions will be interesting to see if they will work and make a noticeable difference in the statistics. I am also keen to see if music piracy is going to carry on being a massive problem in the music industry in the future.

Why is it relevant at this point in time?

At this point in time, music piracy is at the highest it has ever been. There is now a big reaction from associations such as the BPI and CIAA and the music industry in general. A new scheme in particular that has recently been introduced is Spotify, which has been a big hit so far. There has also been big debate about the company Pirate Bay, a large illegal file sharing website has recently been closed down which has been a massive step in reducing piracy.

Research

I made a questionnaire which I put up on a social networking site, Facebook. This way I could have all my answers digitally and it was easier for people to fill in, so it made it easier for everyone. By doing primary research I was able to gather accurate and relevant data.

Here is the questionnaire I posted onto Facebook

Questionnaire

Here is my questionnaire –

Age: 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 40+

Gender: Female Male

Occupation: Student (School/College) University Student Unemployed Employed

What is you favorite genres of music, Chose 4 at the most:
Rock Alternative Indie R&B Pop Jazz Metal Classical Techno Reggae Hip Hop Folk Punk Soul Drum ’n’ Bass Dance

How you get your music normally?
CD
Internet downloads, Eg. iTunes
Vinyl
Illegal Downloads, Eg Limewire
If other please specify:

Do you use different ways of purchasing different genres?, Eg Certain genres not on Itunes

How often do you like watch music video TV channels?
Every day
3 times+ a week
1 time+ a week
Once a month
Never

How often do you listen to radio?
Every day
3 times+ a week
1 time+ a week
Once a month
Never

Do you use music sharing websites to listen to music over the internet? (If yes, please state) Yes/No
YouTube Spotify Last F.M Others………………………………………..

Please circle any of the below that you own at the moment:
Mp3/MP4/iPod
CD player
Vinyl record player
Radio
Computer/Laptop
Mobile phone

Do you attended concerts or gigs? Yes No
If yes, how often do you usually see in a year?
…………………………………………….

Do you ever go onto a bands/artists web page over the internet? Yes No

Do you use websites like Q, MTV or NME to keep up-to-date with the music industry? Yes No

Do you buy music from retail stores? All the time/ Often/ Rarely/ Never

How do you find out about new artists and music?
The Internet (YouTube/ iTunes etc.)
Radio
Music Magazines
Word of Mouth/friends
Live Gigs
Other please specify:

Results.

My results had common patterns throughout, most were expected but some I found surprising. The age ranges include similar answers in particular topics such as gigs and how often radio was listened to. It was interesting to find how certain genres affect the way of how people consume and acquire their music. Certainly around the dance genre I found music was mostly acquired by vinyl. This way it can be used for ‘Djing’ or mixing which is a common craze and hobby at the moment.

Here are the results for the way in which people get their music

As you can see, over half use illegal downloading to acquire there music where as only 14% of people use CD to get their music. The number of illegal down loaders did not massively surprise me but the limited CD users did. Overall within my questionnaire it shows that just over half of the people illegal downloads and the other half get their music legally.

Evaluate.

After looking into my results I have found patterns within them. I have found people often turn to illegal downloading because they can’t get the music anywhere else. People have also stated that the smaller bands that may be unsigned are hard to purchase legally. This again causes them to download on sites such as Lime wire.

Another pattern I found in my answers interested me and it was something I had looked into before. The answer to the question ‘How do you get your music?’ was answered simply, “I don’t, I use Spotify”. This interested me because Spotify has been labelled as a piracy solver. If people are using Spotify to listen to their music mostly people find they no longer need to buy music. So yes it stops people downloading illegally but it also stops people from going out and purchasing the CD’s or downloading from Itunes. From these results it shows that Spotify could be having some negative impact on the music industry.

Looking at how vinyl is a popular way of listening to music because of the latest trends and crazes. My results showed me that people who buy vinyl don’t download illegally. There are ways of getting music to vinyl illegally but this is a long process including an expensive piece of equipment. It happens, but quite rarely and the vinyl business is at a healthy state at the moment.

My results also enabled me to discover how often they are attended, mostly the younger age ranges such as 16-20. This is another way of bands/artists making money, not forgetting other ways such as advertising. Music fans are getting music for free but gigs still allow bands to make a lot of money. The artists may be making less money because of piracy but this still produces a good amount of money. In the future if piracy continues to be as bad as it supposedly is at the moment, bands may be forced to double the amount of concerts they do or even ask for more money per gig. This has a chain reaction on the whole music industry and its fans. The honest fans that don’t download illegally may then see a rise in cost for concerts and shows because of the selfish illegal ‘downloaders’. This is unfair on the fans who have bought legal copies of artists material.

Argument/ findings/ conclusions

When did the music industry actually start to react to piracy?

Statistics around the millennium proved there was a growing decline in music sales. Between 1999 and 2002 music sales had reduced by 31% which was primarily down to piracy. The industry then started to react by licensing download software such as Itunes. More and more ways of downloading legally are becoming available such as Amazon and MP3.com

At the moment lots of new ideas and schemes are being produced but there is continuing to be more and more ways of getting music illegally. There still isn’t a scheme out there which will single handily wipe out music piracy.

Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay was a Swedish website which allowed users to illegally download and file share through the use of .torrent files and BitTorrent. Pirate Bay was used mainly for music but also had Videos, Applications and Games. The site was funded from adverts, donations and merchandise.

Many Countries such as Denmark, China, Italy and the UK have either completely blocked access or have created a limited access to the site.

The company has been under attack by the Piracy Protection Agency for over a year due to copyright laws. A court case in February failed after the creators claimed that they couldn’t be prosecuted because none of the content is hosted on their computer server. On April 17th all 4 Pirate Bay workers were found guilty of assistance to copyright infringement. This had them put in prison for a year and given a fine of 30 million SEK which is around £2,385,000. In the sites defence they claim that the site can be used legally as well as illegally. One of the creators compared the site to ''making cars that can be driven faster than the speed limit".

The website is offline and has been since the court case, however the Global Gaming Factory X AB have expressed the intentions to buy the website and the deal should go ahead in September.

Lime wire

Lime wire is the most installed file sharing/ Peer 2 Peer site on the Internet and is therefore affecting the music industry massively. Unlike ‘Pirate Bay’, Lime Wire can be used legally. This means that the site cannot be shut down. However, a user is very limited to what they can do by using it legally. Unsigned bands can be purchased on Lime wire legally but any copyrighted music file or document downloaded is illegal.

After these programmes and sites have had a huge effect on the music industry companies such as virgin media put in new schemes to help with reducing piracy. As well as this new schemes were made such as Spotify as well as it being a scheme to reduce piracy it is a business as the creators of Spotify make money from it as well.

Virgin Media

Virgin Media last year stated it was to begin a crackdown on illegal file sharing of copyright material. They did this by sending a letter of warning to its broadband users if they were caught file sharing. The British Phonographic Industry was the company which informed Virgin about the wrongdoing of its customers.

The BBC reported that 800 users had been sent a letter of warning by Virgin by July 2008 which was only 3 months after the scheme was set up.

Spotify

Spotify is a programme which allows a user to stream music instantly at a high speed. This enables them to listen to music of there choice instantly. There are different versions of the programme such as a free version, a day pass version and a premium version. The better the version the greater access you have. A direct link is set up on each song or album which allows a user to buy the song via partner retailers such as '7Digital

Lots of top Artists have backed the programme for example Jamie Cullum who said “You can’t prosecute a 12-year-old boy for illegally downloading a record. You just have to make it easier for him not to.”

The founders of Spotify spent a lot of time researching what goes on over the internet and found that internet users don't mind not having the physical CD but just want easy access whenever and wherever they want. Spotify gives a user this and has so far been a success since starting up.

Since Spotify was created there has been a decrease in illegal downloads. A July survey of 1,000 UK music fans suggested that illegal downloads and file sharing of audio content had decreased to 17 per cent in January 2009 from 22 per cent in December 2007. Although this may not all be because of Spotify it suggests it has played a big part in reducing piracy.

Organisations

Organisations within the music industry give help and support to all schemes and events that are trying to reduce piracy.

The Recording Industry Association of America is an organisation committed to helping the music business. They give support to the record companies that create, manufacture and distribute some 85 percent of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold.

Their view on piracy is that it is 'bad news'. They say 'While the term Piracy is constantly used it doesn’t even begin to describe what is taking place.' Like many companies trying to solve piracy they go on to say that 'illegal downloading of music is just as wrong as shoplifting from a local convenience store’. For every artist you can name at the top of the Billboard music charts, there is a long line of songwriters, sound engineers, and label employees who help create those hits'

That is however in America, but there is a British version, the BPI. The British Phonographic Industry looks upon trade in the music industry. It main aim is to fight copyright infringement.

The UK’s music market is the third biggest in the world and BPI’s members are equivalent to 90% of that which includes the big four major record labels. The main objective is simple to help British music thrive.

The BPI have recently claimed that Digital singles now account for 95% of the market, selling 110 million copies in 2008 (42% up on 2007) and 10 million digital albums were sold - 65% up on the previous year.

‘Next year's statistics will be interesting, as the effects of services like Spotify, and LastFM are likely to start to be felt in the numbers. Analysts believe that with over a million UK residents using Spotify, digital sales figures could soon begin to dip once more, due to the "access VS ownership" trend’

Overall organisations are helping in everyway possible to reduce piracy. They also are producing statistics which proves their successes. With the recent schemes produced such as Spotify it is no wonder these organisations are looking forward to producing next years stats.

Piracy has affected the music industry so much that artists are thinking about stopping making music because they can’t actually make any money from it. Most recently Lily Allen, announced on her blog on Twitter that ‘Just so you know, I have not renegotiated my record contract and have no plans to make another record’. Lily felt that there is no longer money to be made in the music industry because piracy has got so bad. This shows the extreme impact piracy is having on the music industry and if it doesn’t reduce many more artist could end their music careers like Lily.

Implications for your own production

If ‘Blighters’ were to develop a stronger fan base through posting their music onto sites such as ‘YouTube’ and ‘Yahoo Music’, audiences could stream their music for free. These sites are becoming extremely popular with music fans. Radio is another effective outlet for up and coming British bands. Radio stations such as Future Radio in Norwich have slots that give unsigned bands an opportunity to air their material. This is a good way of exposing the band to a wider audience.

Having more demand for the bands music would mean they would be more likely to become victims of piracy.

After developing a strong fan base ‘Blighters’ would need to get Copyright© for all of their material to avoid people stealing their music. Without Copyright© protection downloading music isn’t actually illegal and therefore not piracy. However even with Copyright© it doesn’t stop piracy as illegal downloading cannot be stopped completely but it does reduce it. If the band became mainstream, there would be a greater demand for their music and therefore piracy would seriously affect their sales and income.

As it is cheaper to download music legally, the band’s CDs would need to be competitively priced. Record labels and artists such as ‘Blighters’ are looking to produce cheaper promotional material which they distribute across the internet. The Internet is a huge and cheaper option of distribution and is therefore becoming a more popular option to the Industry.

Having more demand for the bands music would mean they would be more likely to become victims of piracy.