Drop DRM, boost sales, say execs
p2pnet.net news:- You’d cry if you weren’t laughing so hard.
“Almost two-thirds of music industry executives think removing digital locks from downloadable music would make more people buy the tracks,” according to the BBC.
The survey examined attitudes to DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control systems in Europe music firms and, “Many of those responding said current DRM systems were ‘not fit for purpose’ and got in the way of what consumers wanted to do”.
Noooo! Really !?!? Got in the way of what consumers wanted to do?
And this was compiled even before Steve Jobs, in deep, deep trouble with users and countries around the world because of his own use of DRM, sang a self-serving paen saying it’s not him, it’s them, those danged labels, who insist on it.
The Beeb has Jupiter Research’s Mark Mulligan, one of the authors of the report, saying he’s “surprised” at the strength of the responses which came from large and small record labels, rights bodies, digital stores and technology providers.
“The study revealed that about 54% of those executives questioned thought that current DRM systems were too restrictive,” says the story. “Also, 62% believed that dropping DRM and releasing music files that can be enjoyed on any MP3 player would boost the take-up of digital music generally.
Although Warner Music (US), EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), the members of the Big 4 Organized Music cartel, claim there’s a booming corporate music market, the reality is, it doesn’t exist, not even nearly.
The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) is one of the Big 4’s many and various keystone kopyright kop enforcement arms and on a number of occasions it’s claimed there are more than 300 companies selling Big 4 ‘product’ online.
However, there’s only one worth talking about. Apple’s iTunes. And even that isn’t a genuine download service. It’s a loss-leader that’s grown and even today, because of DRM, its only function is that of a feeder for Apple iPods, paid for by people gullible enough to believe $1 and more for a download is fair dues.
Apple brags it’s sold two billion songs since 2003. We doubt that. But even taking Apple at its word, those ’sales’ don’t even represent a tiny dent in the wall online music loves have erected between themselves and the Big 4.
Behind it, every month, not every year, at the least, one billion music files move computer to computer around the world.
If the labels were charging 25 to 30 cents per download, say, they’d be raking it in. Instead, they want to increase their ridiculous wholesale rates of between 60 to 85 cents per file.
It’s sheer, untrammeled greed, and nothing more.
As p2pnet has been saying since Day One, if the music industry would stop trying to sue music fans into buying ‘product,’ lower its prices, open its catalogues, and start treating the hundreds of millions of men, women and children it currently accuses of being file sharing criminals like reasonable people, its troubles would instantly be over and it shareholders would be truly happy campers.
Meanwhile, “Among all record labels 48% of all executives thought ending DRM would boost download sales – though this was 58% at the larger labels,” says the BBC. “Outside the record labels 73% of those questioned thought dropping DRM would be a boost for the whole market.
“Among all those questioned, 70% believed that the future of downloadable music lay in making tracks play on as many different players as possible. But 40% believed it would take concerted government or consumer action to bring this about.”
It’s the same old same old. According to Mulligan, the labels are, “committed to using DRM because their digital music strategies revolve around these technologies”.
God forbid they should ever admit they’ve been wrong about that just as they completely misjudged the impact mp3s and p2p networks would have on music in the 21st digital century. And just as they continue to misjudge the temper of their ex-customers who are, thanks to p2p communications, well-informed people able to exercise free choice, rather than the ignorant cash-cow ‘consumers’ of yore.
But, “Despite everything that has been happening the record labels are not about to drop DRM,” says Mulligan. “Even though all they are doing is making themselves look even less compelling by using it,” although, “he could foresee a day when DRM was used to manage these rights and monitor what people did with music rather than stop them,” says the BBC.
He also said the record industry realised that it had to do more to win over some sections of the music buying public – in particular the huge group of people aged 15-24 who prefer to download music for free from file-sharing sites.
A good start would be to stop victimizing them in courts around the world. But don’t bother to stay tuned on that, the latest news being that far from treating teenagers, as well as others, as responsible people who’ll do the right thing if given half a chance, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG are now trying to debase ISPs, wanting to turn them into corporate narks.
Or as the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Cyndi Cohn sums it up, “As if suing thousands of music fans isn’t bad enough, now the RIAA wants to conscript ISPs into helping them streamline the shakedowns. The major record labels sent a letter to ISPs across the country asking them to trade away customers’ rights and make the overzealous file sharing lawsuits more profitable – and the RIAA even has the audacity to suggest that this all for your own good.”
Also See:
BBC – Music execs criticise DRM systems, February 15, 2006
corporate narks – RIAA ‘extortion’ letter to ISPs, February 13, 2006
sums it up – ‘ISPs don’t work for the RIAA’, February 14, 2006
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