Music Industry: Help Save Us, ISPs!
For the decade, the music industry has been trying - and mostly - failing to battle the scourge of piracy.
They’ve gone after the facilitators (Napster, Kazaa, etc.) and carried out a nasty legal/lawsuit strategy against their customers. But despite all the effort and money spent, the music industry has made little progress in stemming the digital tide.
So, what’s their next offensive tactic? Who can the music industry bring into the anti-piracy fold? Encouraged by moves made by the French government, the IFPI believes it’s time for the ISPs to become more pro-active in helping the music industry crack down on all those evil pirates out there.
In a press release, the IFPI proclaims: “2007 was the year ISP responsibility started to become an accepted principle. 2008 must be the year it becomes reality”.
In particular, the IFPI wants the ISPs to engage in the “systematic disconnection of infringers and the use of filtering technologies” to stop “copyright theft”, while alleging that 80% of ISP traffic comprises distribution of copyright-infringing files.
Question: Why must the ISPs become the front line policeman for the music industry, which has yet to come up with a new business model that reflects the digital reality in which they now operate? Is the music industry that desperate that they need the ISPs to help them? Or do they simply realize that lawsuits aren’t doing the job?
In terms of the ISPs, what are they going to do: monitor every single packet at a time when they’re having a difficult enough time trying to provide enough bandwidth for legitimate activity such as video streaming and downloads. At the very least, it looks like an awful lot of work an aggravation for the ISPs.
Don’t get me wrong, stealing music is wrong. But there has to be a better, more creative way to convince consumers not to download music for free. Of course, it may be that music should be free or really inexpensive while the music industry would make money in other ways - concerts, merchandise sales, etc.
For an in-depth look at the IFPI report, check out paidContent. You can download the IFPI’s full report here.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The music industry certainly has a way to go in coming up with better digital business models, but you seem to imply that the current options (iTunes, Amazon.com, Napster, Rhapsody, imeem, last.fm, RCRD LBL, for example) are so inadequate that people have no choice but to engage in piracy. (My impression came from your question, “Why must the ISPs become the front line policeman for the music industry, which has yet to come up with a new business model that reflects the digital reality in which they now operate?”)
My question to you is: At what point will consumers have enough options to consume music? What is that business model that addresses the new reality? (If it’s a model that incorporates other revenue streams such a management, merchandise, licensing and publishing, we’re already there.)
Even with the best possible number of legal options for acquiring music, I have no doubt some people will still use P2P to illegally acquire music. No doubt. Whether or not the industry should worry so much about that group of people is up for debate, but I have no doubt some P2P users will never, ever move to an adequate and legal option.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Glenn:
You make some great points. To be honest, I think the ability to access music has taken some huge strides forward with the launch of services such as Jango, Songza, LastFM, etc.
The question is whether consumers are willing to pay for the songs they hear?
If the answer is yes, then the music industry can focus on making it easier and more attractive to make a purchase.
If, however, the answer is no then maybe the market to buy music is disappearing. If that’s the case, then the focus needs to quickly shift to other areas.
If anything, I’m encouraged by all the new ways to hear music. Like many people, I want to buy it after knowing that it’ll be a good investment. That’s why Jango, et al are so exciting.
January 26th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I’m sitting here wondering if, just maybe, if the overall quality of licensed musical product was better (not production quality; I mean well crafted, well written, passionate music), maybe people wouldn’t complain about the price?
Since I don’t have the answer to that question, I’ll merely comment that it seems like the music industry wants someone to control the taps that “their” music pours out of. If I were an ISP, I wouldn’t want to touch that responsibility with a 10,000 foot pole. The music industry is just one part of a larger whole of creative content rights and distribution.
Maybe the music industry should give away a few songs for free as a preview of an album, then ask people to pay for the rest? I dunno.
January 26th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Hrm.
Funny - ISPs have already been doing this, inadvertently of course…. by throttling torrent traffic and blocking certain ports/packet combos that are synonymous with pirating… the only downside is that legitimate files being transferred with torrent apps are also getting blocked
I [begrudgingly] switched to *paying* for music over a year ago, when I couldn’t get my torrent client to work with any regularity
It was an effective ploy 
and didn’t result in the ISP being legally on the hook for enforcing copywrite.