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Fans won't go legal on downloads
Last updated at 11:47am on 15.05.08
Legally listening: an Apple iPod
Music fans are continuing to download songs illegally instead of staying within the law and paying to use alternatives such as Apple iTunes.
The number of internet users regularly buying music tracks fell from 16 per cent in 2006 to 14 per cent last year, according to a survey by research group The Leading Question.
A quarter of people questioned said they continued sharing files illegally while using legal download stores such as iTunes and 7 Digital. On average, music fans pay for 3.32 single track downloads per month while just as many have tried downloading pirated singles for free.
Record labels have been advocating paid-for download sites as they try to reverse the massive slump in record sales since the file-sharing trend began. Bands such as Radiohead have tried new marketing techniques such as allowing fans to download their music then pay what they think it is worth. And Prince gave away his new album to promote concert ticket sales.
Tim Walker, of The Leading Question, said: "Many music fans are telling us they are dissatisfied with the current legal, paid- for digital music experience. " However the British Phonographic Industry said download sales grew more than 42 per cent in the first half of last year.
Reader views (3)
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Great analogies Jane! After all, communist Russia was a fantastic environment for artistic types was it: Solzhenitsyn, etc, etc. Totalitarianism fosters the creative mind, after all...
What's in this new system for those musicians who don't play live? The songwriters and composers? The session players? The producers? Or do they not count? Under your proposal, only the superstar "artists" should get paid.
Hey, maybe that fits the Soviet model after all.
- Adam, London
When a musician performs live in the UK, they only get paid once, very much like a stage actor.
Actors can negotiate in their contracts something called 'repeat' fees ie. when a TV actor appears in a series and it is repeated, they get another fee. So all the 'Friends' actors are raking it in when they're not working!
I have a friends that work in the industry, and it's not so black and white.
The fact is not paying for downloading takes money away from new, unsigned bands. Yes, these bands may well be able to record their own albums, but it's the cost of taking that album and being able to make it available for the public to hear is where the big expense lies.
Downloading for free is also taking jobs out of the industry. The amount of redundancies at EMI is proof of that. If teenagers and students have aspirations to work in the music industry in some way, I hope they have a Plan B as there are a huge amount of jobs being cut and no entry level jobs are being created.
What is sad is that Britain has been such an amazing country, producing the most talented musicians and songwriters in the world over the last how many decades? How many are now going to go undiscovered because of this kind of behaviour? Short term savings will only lead long term pain for anyone who loves music.
- Tessa Ellis, London
In communist Russia bands would only earn money when they performed live, records were seen as advertising material to promote attendance at concerts. This is a much more realistic and fair payment. A stage actor is only paid when he/she performs - we don't hear them complaining.
- Jane, London
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