presented people just come up with a way to get around getting caught. While the music industry wants the climate of their business to be different they have started to realize that they need to embrace the situation and start to change the plan of their business to generate income in different ways. The importance of changing their way of collecting money became more crucial this week when an Internet organization announced the release of software that will leave no trace of illegal downloading when used by downloader’s. Now it is more important than ever for the music industry to change their business model in order to compensate for the possibility that they will never be able to collect money from lawsuits regarding Internet piracy.Illegal downloading of music is inevitable. It is a shame that artists are getting robbed of their products over the Internet, but there is nothing record labels, artists, or law enforcement can really do to stop individuals from around the world from bootlegging music. An organization called “The Pirate Bay” announced that they are launching the beta testing phase of their virtual private network (VPN) software, which would enable users to use the Swedish BitTorrent tracker without leaving a data trail for only a small monthly fee of about seven dollars a month. "Surfing the Internet leaves a trail of "cookies" – messages web servers send to your browser when you visit internet sites." What does it mean to have no data trail? Let me tell you…
When you hear stories about people getting arrested for illegally downloading copyrighted material or just making it available such as music, movies, or software; or even doing unlawful things over the Internet it is not because they tracked down by the FBI or Interpol going door to door looking for them, these people get arrested because of their data trail, otherwise known as their digital footprints, on the Internet. If there is no trail to follow, these people cannot be arrested. Therefore, the release of The Pirate Bay’s VPN software will be not only detrimental for the music industry, but for all industries affected by Internet piracy. This software is the equivalent of a tool or something professional thieves could use, if it existed, that would erase all traces of their crime with the push of a button. Evidence of outrage towards The Pirate Bay organization is even prevalent on their website, but interestingly they almost like how much corporations hate them. Legal threats have been made by companies from around the world towards The Pirate Bay from Microsoft, DreamWorks, EA, SEGA, Warner Music, Apple, Warner Bros, and the MPAA, just to name a few.
The VPN that The Pirate Bay is going to launch is going to be called IPREDator, “named after IPRED,” which stands for Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive a measure made by the European Union aimed at preventing Interent piracy as well as other forms of copyright infringment made over the Internet. IPRED is set to launch in Sweden on April first. IPRED is the main reason the VPN IPREDator is being launched by The Pirate Bay. It is a response to the regulation set forth by the European Union. As evidenced by the statement “0 torrents has been removed, and 0 torrents will ever be removed” from The Pirate Bay, illegal downloading is now a part of everyday life around the world, while corporations mostly wish to stop internet piracy, this is not necessarily the case for the music industry. Music industry CEO’s and musicians may wish things were different, but things are getting set in motion to make the best out of the situation.
Victoria Shannon, an author for the International Herald Tribune, explains that “the mainstream music industry is coming to recognize a price for digital songs that might be good enough to compete with the underground exchange of tunes on the Internet: free.” This acceptance of an illegal practice came swiftly since sales have been dropping faster than imaginable. The catch to getting this free music is exposure to advertisements. A website that
has joined the ad-supported free-music business is called Qtrax. The business model for Qtrax is stressing the point that they are the “first free and legal peer-to-peer music service.” The great thing about Qtrax is that all the major record labels are signed on to have their music on the service totaling about twenty-five million tracks, which is only an estimate from other peer-to-peer networks. Another great quality about the Qtrax service is that the downloads will be virus and spyware free as well as clear of any technical obstacles that other peer-to-peer networks are recognized for. Qtrax is not the only interface available that allows music to be downloaded legally. There are other programs such as Rhapsody that allows users to legally download music over the Internet for free or very small monthly/yearly fees.Hopefully, despite The Pirate Bay’s VPN software, people will choose legal ways of obtaining music over the Internet. People are obviously at work in the music industry to compensate for losses resulting from Internet copyright infringement now that they realize that there is not much they can do to stop people from downloading. While people might enjoy aspects of free and legal music there are however ways that artists could be hurt if record companies decide to move to advertisement based revenue. No doubt, it will most likely be able keep the music industry afloat, but this aspect of this business plan could cripple artist’s income from their music being free instead of sold. Also, in addition to musicians making less money from album sales their deals with record labels might include the record companies taking a cut of merchandise and tour revenue, which are currently the main ways artists are making money. This type of deal is also known as a 360 deal which means that artists will "give labels their standard cut of CD and digital download sales, but also give them a percentage of event ticket profits, merchandise sales, endorsement deals and anything else that uses the artist’s brand or music." These deals are becoming more common these days, and will soon be mandatory as labels prepare for the free music business plan.
Paramore, a popular rock band has had great success under the contract of their 360 deal. There are definitely some perks to bands signing this type of arrangement because "in return for that bigger share, labels might give artists more money up front and in many cases touring subsidies that
otherwise would not be offered. More important, perhaps, artists might be allowed more time to develop the chops needed to build a long career. And the label’s ability to crossmarket items like CD's, ring tones, V.I.P. concert packages and merchandise might make for a bigger overall pie." There are however, some serious drawbacks to the terms of a 360 deal. "The industry’s hunger for 360 deals might also subtly shift the ways labels view the scouting and cultivation of talent, a process known as A&R, or artist and repertory, development." This means that rather than officials working for record labels looking for new talent, developing a bands image and sound, they are going to be looking for the complete package - bands that are already have a look and material ready for radio play and touring. This will make it very difficult for emerging acts to get signed.Whatever happens in the music industry those responsible for this situation are the people illegally downloading copyrighted songs. Executives and CEO's are always going to be alright, but the musicians who just want to pursue a career they are passionate about, a career that entertains millions of people every day may end up suffering. The Pirate Bay's VPN and other services that allow music to be downloaded illegally only make the situation worse, but hopefully the music industry is going to flip the current condition on its head and make the climate of the music industry better for both the executives and the artists.
Josh, thanks for you thorough look into the issue of illegal downloads. As a fellow musician, it is a bit alarming to say the least, that artists will need to start being more creative with the business side of performing in the business. I do wonder if the record execs and labels are focusing on the wrong side of the issue. Of course, it is not news to hear that millions of people continue to download music illegally. It seems as though its all at a peak at this point and the industry cannot keep up with ever-changing technology and its advances.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the industry can shift their efforts and begin to court these controversial programmers to begin a new campaign that embraces these technological advances—and the fact that it is unavoidable to keep people from downloading music illegally. These programmers obviously know what the public likes…and my guess is that people want to pay nothing for music. Can the industry join the information age, where everything can be obtained for free on several platforms? Is it asking too much for the public to monitor their own internet activities so much so that they must limit what they can and cannot download?
I do know, if the public can do whatever it wants basically without really being caught, with programs like IPREDator, if there are means that can be invoked to prevent such downloads, the public will not be happy and the backlash could be just as devastating to the music industry.