Music News: 95% of music downloads are illegal

Dust2

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009...7/music-piracy

Quote:

Despite record-breaking growth in digital sales of music from sites such as iTunes, the majority of music downloaded in 2008 was done so without payment to either the artist or record label, according to a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

However, research carried out in 16 countries by the record industry body found that an estimated 40bn files were illegally shared in 2008. The report took responses from a number of consumer surveys over the last three years about downloading habits and compared them with the 2.3bn legitimate online tracks that were sold in 2008. It concluded that piracy rate last year was as high as 95%.

Do you think the 95% figure is a bit high? or about right?

And what can be done to slow down music piracy?

This article offers a solution:

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.p...8/news-update/

It talks about Itunes raising price to $1.29 as a 'stupid' move.

Quote:

The future of selling music is not track by track on iTunes, or any other site. It’s something akin to a subscription, getting everything for one low price and paying rights holders based on the number of listens.

Yes, I agree this is a stupid move, with potential short term gains and long term consequences, but isn’t this what the major labels specialize in?

It would be logical to drop prices, dramatically. Especially in light of the recession. But labels would rather be an exotic resource than an everyman provider, Ferrari as opposed to Toyota. Until you get everybody partaking at a low price, you can never achieve scale.

Dramatic Price Drop that get everybody partaking at a low price to achieve scale. Sound like the South Korean MP3 music market where the average price of a MP3 is about $0.25. As a result, their weekly #1 sell more than the USA weekly #1.

Weekly #1 the last few weeks:

http://www.gaonchart.co.kr/main/sect...on?nationGbn=T

Week ending----mp3 sold
4/30: 417,710 (it also sold 424,374 in its first 3 days, so over 840,000 mp3 sold in 10 days)
4/23: 548,927 (#2 sold 424,374 as noted above)
4/16: 413,645
4/09; 366,631
4/02: 636,891

South Korea has about 48 million people (less than 1/6 of the USA population)

And it is one of the few music markets that is GROWING IN SIZE and REVENUE.

Яeo.

Not shocking.

Electronica

I'm illegally downloading some shyt as I type!

Forevermore

Not surprised

MrDeeds

What can be done?
Lower the price of albums.

Dephira

Lol based on consumer surveys. There is no way to measure this accurately. But yeah, the overwhelming majority of downloads are definitely illegal. I think there's not much that can be done, as it's a cyclical development; whenever a new format (LP, CD, Digital etc.) is introduced, sales get higher and higher and sales for the "outdated" format decrease rapidly.

That being said, DIGITAL PRICES ARE WAY TOO ****ING HIGH. $1.29 for ONE song? Who are you kidding? And why do I need to pay $8-10 for a digital album when for 2 dollars more or sometimes the same price, I can get the physical copy?

Cap10Planet

Quote:

Originally posted by VeroElectronica

I'm illegally downloading some shyt as I type!

I'm calling the feds as I type.

ToMmY

It's 95% their fault.

Dust2

Quote:

Originally posted by MrDeeds

What can be done?
Lower the price of albums.

This article offers a solution:

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.p...8/news-update/

It talks about Itunes raising price to $1.29 as a 'stupid' move.

Quote:

The future of selling music is not track by track on iTunes, or any other site. It’s something akin to a subscription, getting everything for one low price and paying rights holders based on the number of listens.

Yes, I agree this is a stupid move, with potential short term gains and long term consequences, but isn’t this what the major labels specialize in?

It would be logical to drop prices, dramatically. Especially in light of the recession. But labels would rather be an exotic resource than an everyman provider, Ferrari as opposed to Toyota. Until you get everybody partaking at a low price, you can never achieve scale.

Dramatic Price Drop that get everybody partaking at a low price to achieve scale. Sound like the South Korean MP3 music market where the average price of a MP3 is about $0.25. As a result, their weekly #1 sell more than the USA weekly #1.

Weekly #1 the last few weeks:

http://www.gaonchart.co.kr/main/sect...on?nationGbn=T

Week ending----mp3 sold
4/30: 417,710 (it also sold 424,374 in its first 3 days, so over 840,000 mp3 sold in 10 days)
4/23: 548,927 (#2 sold 424,374 as noted above)
4/16: 413,645
4/09; 366,631
4/02: 636,891

South Korea has about 48 million people (about 1/6 of the USA population)

And it is one of the few music markets that is GROWING IN SIZE and REVENUE.

At its peak, each person spend on average $71 in 2010. In 2009, each person spend only $26.

Dephira

Quote:

Originally posted by Cap10Planet

I'm calling the feds as I type.

Electronica

Quote:

Originally posted by Cap10Planet

I'm calling the feds as I type.

Happy to be taking 95% with me.

Яeo.

You guys need to understand that it's not about the price. Why buy anything when you can download it for free, and without getting caught? People who have not planned to buy certain things will not buy it even for $0.01, if they were available for free and immediately.

It has became more of moral thing and the persons perspective of copyrights and payment. We have grown in a society were you'd be considered "dumb" if you buy things than you can get for free.

alkralkra

In South Korea, #1 song can sell 500K copies in a week, but labels and artists are not making money out of them... because their songs are too cheap. It's actually cheaper than $0.25, about $0.15 or less.

Dust2

Quote:

Originally posted by alkralkra

In South Korea, #1 song can sell 500K copies in a week, but labels and artists are not making money out of them... because their songs are too cheap. It's actually cheaper than $0.25, about $0.15 or less.

I would disagree with that.

http://musicandcopyright.wordpress.c...ricing-update/

Quote:

South Korea and Russia are the countries in which single track cost the least: between US$0.11 and US$0.52 in South Korea and between US$0.28 and US$0.79 in Russia.

Here's what the top 10 songs of 2010 earned from downloads, ringtones, streaming and background music

1 Bad Girl Good Girl Bad But Good miss A 805,177,964 (about $2.4 mil)
2 Amazon (With 2AM to go crazy) Nagging IU (IU) 760,005,040 (about $2.28 mil)
3 Sick enough to die (Feat. Mellow) Blue brand Trauma Part.2 Vol.2 MC Mong 667,681,012 (about $2 mil)
4 Go Away To Anyone 2NE1 620,931,026 (about $1.86 mil)
5 Oh! `Run Devil Run` The 2nd Album Repackage Girls 615,916,330 (about $1.85 mil)
6 2 Different Tears 2 Different Tears Wonder Girl (Wonder Girls) 612,819,160 (about $1.84 mil)
7 For food, ate well Homme by 'Hitman' Bang Changmin & Lee Hyun (HOMME) 608,648,207 (about $1.83 mil)
8 Was then back then back then Ames Room (EP) Supreme & Hey, Young Jun (Brown Eyed Soul) 583,746,890 (about $1.75 mil)
9 Confession Seesaw Hot Potato 578,141,618 (about $1.73 mil)
10 Heh (Hoot) 'Heh (Hoot)' The 3rd Mini Album Girls 563,799,214 (about $1.69 mil)

1 digital aggregates = $0.003 USD according to GAON CHART (Korean BillBoard Chart)

Keep in mind that it has a population of less than 1/6 of the USA.

cshumate

What a shame

I buy pretty much all of my music. If it's not good enough for me to buy, I don't buy it.

The only stuff I've ever downloaded illegally really were songs that I COULDN'T buy (unreleased songs by faves) and, at one time, the Beatles discography around 4 years ago :P.

Vashetti

Quote:

Originally posted by VeroElectronica

I'm illegally downloading some shyt as I type!

alkralkra

That $2.4 mil don't go to labels and artists, music downloading sites take almost all the money

Dust2

Quote:

Originally posted by alkralkra

That $2.4 mil don't go to labels and artists, music downloading sites take almost all the money

They take about half. Far from almost all the money.

Here's the revenue and net profit from 3 of their biggest record labels.

SME 2009: $61.8 mil USD in revenue ---net profit $4.5 mil
SME 2010: $86.4 mil USD in revenue ---net profit $21.8 mil

YG 2009: $35.7 mil USD in revenue ---net profit $4.1 mil
YG 2010: $44.8 mil USD in revenue -- net profit $9.8 mil

JYP 2009: $10.2 mil USD in revenue---(net loss of $4.7 mil)
JYP 2010: $21.6 mil USD in revenue - net profit $0.9 mil

KT&T

95% seems a bit high I would have though a little more than half. I imagine the legal downloads (or sales) are from stans who support their artists.

alkralkra

In South Korea's biggest music downloading site Melon, there is a subscription service, you can download a certain number of songs with monthly pay. You can download 40 songs for 5000 won (about 4.6 dollars), and 150 songs for 9000 won (about 8.3 dollars), so it's about $0.115 and $0.055 each.