Illegal downloads outnumber bought music 20 to 1

[AntRobertson]

Nothing particularly earth-shattering about this, if I had to guess I probably would've been somewhere close. But it's interesting to see the money that's still being made from legit downloading nevertheless.

I reckon the ratio for Legal Vs. Illegal movies would be about the same too:

Illegal downloads outnumber bought music 20 to 1
9:08AM Friday January 25, 2008
By Kate Holton




LONDON - Illegally downloaded tracks now outnumber legally bought music tracks by 20 to 1, the international trade body said today.

Sales of music fell at a faster rate in 2007 than 2006 despite digital sales soaring, the IFPI said in a new report.

Global digital sales grew by around 40 per cent in 2007, the IFPI group said, but this was not enough to offset the sharp fall in CD sales, meaning the overall market is expected to be down around 10 per cent for 2007.

Physical sales of music have dropped, with total album sales plunging 15 per cent in 2007 in the United States, the world's biggest music market, and falling over 10 per cent in Britain.

The IFPI said tens of billions of illegal files were swapped in 2007, with the ratio of unlicensed tracks downloaded to legal tracks sold at about 20 to 1.

As part of its response, the industry is calling on internet service providers to take more responsibility for illegal file sharing by either disconnecting those who repeatedly upload music or preventing illegal tracks from being downloaded.

Many ISPs have so far proved reluctant to engage on the matter, but the music industry is hoping this could change following a move by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to block Web access to those frequently downloading music or films illegally.

"It is hard to persuade anyone to be a pioneer but what we have with the French government is a very energetic government understanding how important the French music industry is to French business and culture," IFPI Chief Executive John Kennedy told Reuters.

"That leadership shows that it's not as dreadful or as problematic as people think," he said in an interview.

The industry has also been boosted by a landmark ruling in Belgium which ordered a service provider to block illegal file-sharing - although the company is appealing - while in Britain, the government has said it could impose legislation if an agreed settlement between both sides cannot be found.

A year-long negotiation period expired at the end of 2007.

The music industry says it has been forced to turn to legal remedies after rampant internet piracy rocked its traditional revenue model.

"If the ISPs played their role it would have a dramatic effect," Kennedy said, explaining that research shows people fear having their internet service disconnected.


A spokesman for the UK body which represents providers of internet services said his members preferred self regulation and warned that legislation could often be too rigid, but he said they were still holding negotiations on the matter.
Away from the legal disputes, the industry has seen encouraging signs from the growth of legal sales.

Global digital music sales were estimated to be approximately $2.9 billion in 2007, a roughly 40 per cent increase on 2006, and single track downloads, the most popular digital music format, grew by 53 per cent.

Digital sales now account for an estimated 15 per cent of the global music market, up from 11 per cent in 2006 and zero in 2003. In the United States, online and mobile sales now account for 30 per cent of all revenues.
- Reuters

[ChiangMai noon]

I haven't bought a movie or any music for at least 3 years.

everything comes from torrents now.

interestingly enough, on a couple of uk based forums i am a member of, few people use torrents, the ISP's seem to throttle download speeds and many give a monthly download limit.
our complaints about Thai ISP's are tame compared to those in the UK.

[NickA]

Oh dear, Micheal Jackson and Celine Dion might have to take a cut in pay. Oh, boo hoo

[AntRobertson]

I haven't bought a movie or any music for at least 3 years.

I have actually tried to buy legitimate content before, specifically some TV shows via the Apple iTunes service.

The result? Well being resident in Thailand they wouldn't allow the transaction.

Way to combat piracy! Ensure that in one of the higher risk places for it you can't buy legitimate copies even if you wanted to.

[Tao]

I buy from iTunes when i can't find the torrents i'm looking for. Just depends how badly i want to listen to new music.

[AntRobertson]

^ How do you manage that Tao? Are you based in Thailand or somewhere else?

[Tao]

Live in Thailand but credit cards registered in th UK.

[AntRobertson]

^ Ahh that's what it was, I was trying to use my Thai credit card. Righto cheers.

I guess it's more a fraud prevention thing than piracy concerns.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I was banned for 3 days from Mac Forums for admitting I use Limewire to download songs I like.

[bkkmadness]

You got your torrent download sites set up yet Scamp?

[Texpat]

I made the mistake of updating my address (in thailand) on my US-based credit cards just before Christmas. I couldn't buy anything online with that address.

Back on topic, I wonder how the recording industry plans to combat this. It's not a new issue -- the Napster lawsuit was about 10 years ago. The artists are still making money and the music is more prevalent than ever.

[NickA]

^Instead of being realistic and making everybody in the industry (who are already very very well paid) take a pay cut so that they are only well paid and can hence sell music at a reasonable price they are going to try and fight a losing battle to stop piracy.

Even if they stop the pirates, few people will go back to paying 10 pounds for a CD now that everyone knows their true value.

[Texpat]

I think you're right, they can't put the genie back in the bottle.

CDs are slowly going the way of the 8-track. Everything's electronic now and can be sent 'round the planet in microseconds.

[NickA]

^A DVD with about 50 CDs worth of MP3s costs approximately 10 baht and takes a few days to download. What value can a CD have any more?

[Spin]

CBS will be giving away music in the future from lastfm.com, they announced this a couple of days ago. Downloads will be funded primarily by advertising revenue and will be the real deal, not some crackly mp3 knocked up by a spotty kid somewhere.

[AntRobertson]

It's really just the new way of making up a mix-tape as most did when they were kids. Only on a much larger scale due to the ease of being able to copy files. Illegal then and illegal now.

Same as then however I don't think there's realistically much they can do about it.

[EmperorTud]

The bar has been raised in terms of product yet again with the introduction of Hi Definition and 7.1 lossless audio.

CD is dead as a medium and DVD is in its death throes as demands for larger and larger storage space increases and quality of product increases.

Hi-Def data around 25 to 50 GB that is stored on Blu Ray is too much for most people to download especially when the price of media has come down to a more acceptable level. Streaming full HD content is as yet practically impossible, so it will be some time yet before we see the extinction of disc-based media.

There will still be a magpie-like portion of society that like to collect and therefore will still buy original audio and visual media. It may turn into a very niche market like vinyl audio eventually.

What will sustain the industry through piracy is the expanding gaming market which has completely eclipsed sales of movies already and with the envelope being pushed all the time piracy is becoming increasingly difficult.

As usual Sony is setting the standard and all others are following suit. Blu-Ray remains as yet the only true next gen disc based media format and the PS3 has now taken the mantle of the leading next gen games console and has yet to be compromised by the pirates.

[Texpat]

the leading next gen games console and has yet to be compromised by the pirates.

Only a matter of time before games go electronic too.

What's the next domino to fall?

Phones?

GPS?

[EmperorTud]

the leading next gen games console and has yet to be compromised by the pirates.

Only a matter of time before games go electronic too.

What's the next domino to fall?

Phones?

GPS?

It will be a long time before games go fully electronic for a number of reasons. Not least the size of the games which are set to rise to a maximum of 50GB per game in the near future. Such sizes are impossible for most people to download due to ISP restrictions and bandwidth restrictions, plus Hard-Drive space in the machines is still limited and of course companies like Sony want to protect themselves against the pirates by having encryption on disc media.

[Texpat]

Sounds hauntingly similar to what CD makers said 20 years ago. Moore's Law at work.

[EmperorTud]

^Sure, but with CD and now increasingly with DVD they have lost the battle. Most casual internet users with a normal broadband connection can download CD and even full DVD content because of the small file size.

The big companies will simply continue to throttle bandwidth and limit downloads as they almost all do in the West to prevent piracy of their new products. As Blu-Ray games and movies become more popular they are going to be harder to steal by your average internet user. 25 to 50GB downloads are at the moment either impossible, incredibly difficult or just not worth bothering about for people who are not hardcore pirates. Most people won't be able to afford an unlimited download connection and so it will render the sharing of next generation media an impossibility, for the foreseeable future at least.

It's only a matter of time but it is going to be a lot longer than people think.

[NickA]

^That's why I always try to stay at least 5 years behind the latest technology

[Bubba]

A lot of the music that is downloaded would never have been bought in the first place. When I bought music I would never have dreamed at owning 5000 albums, or being able to lay my hands on rare Bassbin Twins EPs or whatever.

Things like soulseek give music a new lease of life, and musicians are trying new ways of getting their music out without necessarily goin throiugh large record companies. Myspace, more live music, etc.

There's an interesting article by David Byrne (ex-Talking Heads frontman) in this (or last month's) Wired News