Into the music stream

Posted by Simon Dyson Friday, October 17th, 2008

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Earlier this week, Entertainment Media Research (ERA) announced the findings of its 2008 Digital Music Survey. Like most involved in the business of music, it was pleasing to see that illegal downloading was down.
The survey also found that almost three quarters of illegal downloaders (72%) stated they would cease their wrongdoings if they were contacted by their ISP.

But should ERA have really claimed that the need to download illegally has been diluted by “the massive growth in available free music”? Music companies will have welcomed the findings of the survey and anything that suggests a shift in the mindset of consumers away from unauthorized downloading can only be a good thing. But the constant use of the word “free” just reinforces the wrongly-established perception that music is just a throw-away commodity that has long been overpriced.

Very few record companies will ever put the word free in any publicity about the launch of a new service. Take the announcement earlier this year that confirmed the partnership between Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Music for the recently launched MySpace Music service. Not one mention of free, except when describing the download format (DRM-free). All the way through it talked of “monetization models” and “adding commerce and music management tools”. Yet when the service was finally launched, every report positively glowed when describing that the music companies had finally listened to what the consumer wanted.

If one billion streams in the first week or so is confirmation that consumers do not want to pay for music then we have a bigger problem than we first thought. Perhaps it’s a bit too simple to suggest that illegal downloaders have just switched their consumption away from downloading and on to one of the many streaming services. But it has become easier than ever to create a playlist from a huge range of music offered by last.fm or imeem that is easily equivalent to the breadth of tracks available from unauthorized services.

The music industry may have moved a step closer to solving the problem of illegal downloading. But in doing so they have inadvertently created a bigger monster that could be accelerating the death sentence already handed down to the recorded music sector.