Media Missing The Point On Music
With all the hubbub surrounding the end of the year, which included many lists of bests/worsts/predictions, much was said about music and movies, especially with regard to digital piracy. The sad fact is, however, that a majority of the mainstream commentary either misinterprets the raw data or chooses to leave out certain details in order to present piracy in a light that is not necessarily correct or legitimate.
The USA Today made a legitimate point in one of their recent year-end pieces in the last week of December: piracy has been one of the major driving forces over the last decade, forging new business models, collapsing some industries, and forcing numerous other changes. But, much like the movie industry, the music industry chooses to whine about digital pirates “stealing” their copyrighted content and “ruining” their lines of income, rather than see the true benefit that freely available content is having on their business models.
The movie industry had a record-setting year in box office receipts, albeit partially due to a rise in the actual price of tickets, while also claiming that piracy was “destroying” their business and that the digital age’s preferred methods of distribution (DVD sales, DVD rentals, and online streaming) were “stealing” profits. However, the plain fact is that these companies have absolutely nothing to complain about, piracy included.
Music sales may be down slightly from their CD-fueled peak in the 90’s, but they haven’t been devastated as the industry would have the masses believe – iTunes, and many other digital music outlets, have risen as major players to replace the countless bankrupt record stores. While piracy may be having a slight effect on overall sales, it’s more important to reflect on what the true underlying problem may be: the quality of music being produced.
The last decade, as far as mainstream music is concerned, has been filled with one manufactured star after another, all with music as generic sounding as the one previous. While this began at the tail end of the 90’s, it was not so prevalent in the decade that saw the rise of grunge and many rock acts – could this lack of creativity not have effected record sales? Some consumers may be interested in purchasing music that they are told to like, but it is far more likely that most individuals have personal tastes that they are willing to spend money on if they find it worthwhile.
More importantly, there has been a divergence of mainstream music tastes, a fragmentation of genres as the result of a larger suite of options. Between pop music, rap, rock, metal, country, R&B, blues, and numerous other musical flavors, there is no longer a single genre that can establish itself as the popular music choice of modern consumers. This can be easily attributed to consumers’ ability to research, find, and sample music prior to purchasing it, courtesy of the internet – an activity impossible prior to 1999/2000.
The combination of ever expanding genre choices and the ability to research personal tastes can be seen as resulting in such unexpected successes like Death Cab For Cutie – this is something most artists recognize, where they tell fans to find music in any fashion they want, and to instead spend money on shows and merchandise. Record labels may not fully appreciate this business model, but artists and fans have chosen to embrace it wholeheartedly, so the labels would be better off adapting than fighting the very artists that generate billions in income.
If anything can be said about music over the last decade it is that music is more prevalent, widely available, and unique than ever before, all because of the very mechanism the music industry executives choose to battle on a daily basis. These very same executives fought new delivery mechanisms, and they now are forced to accept the whims of Apple and Amazon on pricing strategies – without the internet, music would be just as stale and homogenous as it was for the majority of previous decades. Piracy is not a revenue destroyer, but rather a generator, especially for longshot investments in niche or unproven bands. No matter how much the mainstream critics and pundits wish to ignore reality and continue to regurgitate the industry’s partylines, piracy is not a destructive force on an otherwise “healthy” industry.
Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.
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Piracy as referred to here is the theft of intellectual property. It’s illegal. Period. Apologists can rationalize all they want to, but the practice is a crime.
I think this is the point that gets missed.
Jim,
It’s a crime that shouldn’t be a crime as it currently stands, or at least with the massive penalties attached as they are.
More importantly, piracy wouldn’t exist, as many have pointed out, if the industry would have embraced the digital world rather than eschew it. They’ve nailed their own coffin.
To be honest, *you* missed the point.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »Hey, Kyle…
Intellectual property theft(piracy) has been in existence a lot longer than the digitization of music. Software, movies, music, etc., have all been impacted by theft for years and years. To assume piracy wouldn’t exist if the music industry had adapted better to the digital age is questionable at best.
Why shouldn’t piracy be illegal as it stands? Is that your opinion and advice to the industry? Or is there some legal view that intellectual property should be free and therefore anti-piracy laws are in themselves illegal? Music only? Or other areas of creativity?
With much respect, I do get the point you’re trying to make. I just disagree.
In response to another comment. See in context »Jim,
First of all, piracy is not new – I agree to that. But it has not existed at the loss of those who own the content, for the most part, as mixtapes for friends and grainy camcorder copies of movies did not destroy, or even damage, the industry. Even the asian black market of movies seems more a novelty than anything.
Second, the problem of piracy is one of copyright and its management – it’s a minority that believe in a “no copyright” policy, and the rest of us simply feel that, in terms of music and movies, the labels are overzealous. Fair Use historically included the use of a VCR to record TV, mixtapes for friends, taping from the radio, etc. – why should a digital format be any different?
Third, when music is purchased, very little money actually goes to the artist, unless they’re powerful/old enough to have the necessary clout. Many people are smart enough to know that buying music does nothing more than support the band in name only, and don’t feel a need to line the pockets of executives. On countless MySpace band pages, and at countless concerts, bands the world over want the fans to find their music by any means necessary and simply show up for live performances or buy merchandise – the things that really support the artist.
The argument for music piracy is that the industry wasn’t giving consumers what they wanted or how they wanted it, so they figured it out on their own… and still continue to support the artists they believe in.
While the arguments for movie piracy is similar, software and a few other arenas are a whole different ballgame because of the nature of their copyright.
–Kyle
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] for a moment, how the music industry got into this very same position, and notice the similarities. Now consider that the print publishing industry typically pays their [...]
[...] their entire business model, despite having known for years what was coming. Even worse was their childish, whining reaction to the latest innovations, rather than adopting them, turning a potential revolution into their [...]