Considering the amount of money the music industry pours into trying to stop people from downloading music from file sharing networks, I think it’s fair to say that they believe their efforts will help increase the sales of CDs. They must, otherwise the RIAA wouldn’t be suing people left and right, and spending so many days in court trying to “help the music business thrive.” Given this, the question of the year is, does illegal downloading of music really harm the music industry? Canada’s National Statistical Agency took a look at the sales of music and their findings point to a big answer of no! So if the recording industry isn’t really affected by illegal downloads, why is so much effort put into stopping it?
As many of you have pointed out in comments before, downloading music illegally actually pushes you to go buy the music that you really like after you hear it. With the amount of people that turn to P2P networks increasing, you’d think that the sales of music would be decreasing, but at least in Canada, it’s not. In fact, it’s increasing. The study found this: “downloading the equivalent of approximately one CD increases purchasing by about half of a CD.” The bottom line is that P2P file-sharing increases rather than decreases music purchasing, despite the fact that the big four (Warner, Universal, EMI, and Sony BMG) will lead you to believe that the industry is devastated.
Source: Michael Geist (Thanks for the tip Sean!)
It’s interesting that they are fighting the one thing that has helped promote their music better than any other form of media.
I don’t think there is a person alive who understands what they are trying to accomplish right now. Maybe it’s all a act? Maybe they are actually enjoying the profits they have been making from piracy, and feel that suing people is a great way to make alittle more cash on the side?
I’m a fairly paranoid person though…
Honestly I usually download Music first and If I like it and want to continue listen to it I’ll go out and buy the CD and then rerip to MP3, generally I can’t stand sites that sell CDs that make it impossible to listen to the entire album before purchasing. I would never buy MP3z because I think that’s the wrong approach to the Music Industry, although I archive my purchased CDs into MP3z for backup and listening to on a computer but any portable device I use is either CD or high quality then MP3z (Mini-Disc) MP3z degrade the quality of the music, and loose important information from the sounds!
If they had the option to buy CDs if you didn’t like the album you could return it for something different or store credit, obvious it would be bad to give money back cause you’d have those few who would just go to rip the cd and distribute and ruin it for those who would use the service right.
I certainly agree that the industry is not adapting well, and I don’t think that the extreme fines some have paid after being prosecuted by the RIAA are anything close to fair. However, I do wonder if CD (and online) sales would plummet if most people didn’t consider filesharing to be theft. Those high-profile prosecutions may only serve to make sure that people on the moral fence feel compelled to make honest purchases of their entertainment.
I see no reason to purchase a CD in addition to a download. What, the lyrics? Online. Cover art? Online. Liner notes. Online. Sound quality? If you can hear the difference between the CD and 192kbps, I admire the amount that you’ve trained your ear. I use eMusic, and I only buy a CD if it’s not there and I absolutely must have it.
Sure, there may be some that are still tied to the physical CD, but there can’t be many. Music buyers, therefore, are mostly people who believe that filesharing is dishonest or otherwise feel compelled to pay for the music they enjoy (except those that don’t use the internet).
As somewhat touched on in the article, profit percentages were up for the industry in 2005 (which is eons ago, in terms of the number of worldwide internet users with fat pipes, by the way) – mostly due to the profit margins of online sales. It’s therefore also likely that the higher profit margin of online sales (with less overhead – no manufacturing or physical delivery costs) is offsetting a reduction in profits from the reduced sales of physical media.
Just my 2 cents, and I’m climbing down off my high horse now. I’m certainly one those moral fence-sitters – I used allofmp3.com for a little while, and I haven’t deleted all those files.
The other error, which the study itself makes, is inferring causality from an association. The survey respondents who downloaded lots of music also purchased lots of CDs. Would they really have bought less CDs if filesharing were unavailable? Or could it just so happen that rabid downloaders are also rabid music fans? I think that putting that stat about downloading 1 CD increasing purchases by 1/2 CD in the abstract of the report was irresponsible.
Here are some countering stats from the original report:
“individuals who increased P2P file-sharing by 1 percent because they considered an ‘album too expensive’ purchased 3.2 percent fewer CDs”
“(hypothesis) which states that people engage in P2P file-sharing and music downloading because they wish to hear music before buying it. We are unable to find any relationship between the variable ‘Hear before buying’ and CD purchases, either for the Canadian population as a whole or for the P2P file-sharing subpopulation”
“With respect to a market creation effect, our results show that people who participate in P2P file-sharing because the music is ‘not available elsewhere’ also tend to purchase more CDs”
So there are some people who download music when it’s the only way they can get it, but the argument that filesharers just want to hear before buying doesn’t hold any water. Those of you who use p2p because you don’t want to buy CDs – you’re obviously not increasing sales.
If I felt like reading every line of the methods and the results, I’m sure I’d find several more problems with their conclusions.
I really don’t pirate much of any music…I usually just listen first on youtube or something (they have like every song ever made on there, man
)…and if I like it, I buy it. If I don’t, I don’t buy it.
But really, pirating helps…more or less. One of my friends is the biggest music pirate I’ve ever met….but he and his sister have the biggest CD collection I’ve ever met (probably over 100).
er…CD collection I’ve ever seen…not met. Stupid me
.
I’m surprised to hear this. I guessed that P2P had very little or no impact on album sales, but a increase in sales?! I hope that between this and the Radiohead success the music industry notices that things need to change.
Or you could read the results of the study this way. For every 2 cds I steal I buy 1.
In my opinion, I think that all this study is really saying is that people who like to listen to music, will download and purchase music, while people who don’t listen to music will not download or purchase music.
I legally download a bunch of music, but it will be a track or 2 from an artist/band that I have never heard of, and if I like what they have to offer then I will buy the cd. But to be honest I have a huge chunk of music that I have downloaded that I have never even listened to.
The last album I did download not on the up and up I did purchase. The only reason I downloaded it was because it was available on the p2p sites before it was released in the states, but that could be the fanboy in me.
taf
I suppose it’s true. Personally, I refuse to buy a cd. Many “bands” are HORRIBLE and I refuse to support the music monopoly.
I have a subscription to XM satellite radio, and with that I get free Internet streaming of music as well. I can’t remember the last time I downloaded a song because I often hear the same songs so much that I get sick of them. It’s all about online radio for me.
I downloaded both “The Killers” albums via torrents and after burning the albums and listening to them in my car for several weeks, I bought both of them.
If I didn’t have the “Illegal” copies to listen to, I wouldn’t have purchased these albums…
I’m sure I’m not the only one that does this and this also applies to software and games – I won’t put in a dime unless I KNOW the software/music/game is worth buying.
LOL… over 100? I’ve got 300 CD’s in my collection… and I only listen to about 6 of them