p2pnet.net News:- Recently, I said the lack of availability of songs from authorised mp3 websites was driving the Australian demand for unauthorised downloads of popular songs.

At the time I referred to Australia’s #1 song, Jesse McCartney’s “Beautiful Soul” as being unavailable as an authorised download from the Bigpond Music, Ninemsn Music, and Destra partners’ websites. And in the time that’s passed since then, what’s changed and what hasn’t?

Well Jesse’s song is still #1 on the ARIA singles chart.

And as at April 18, 2005, you still can’t buy Jesse’s track as an authorised download from any of the three “authorised” websites:

http://bigpondmusic.com/searchResults.asp?keyword=Jesse%20McCartney (Bigpond Music)

http://music.ninemsn.com.au/ (Ninemsn Music – just type in Jesse’s name as a search item)

http://sanity.destramusic.com/search.asp?SearchString=Jesse+McCartneyx=x=0x=artist (Sanity – who use the Destra framework in their d/l business)

Now the latest news is that the single has been discounted, which means it’s no longer being manufactured and shipped to retailers.

According to the Sanity website, "This title has been discontinued. We have limited stock available.” I confirmed this deletion with a phone call to several local CD retailers.

So not only has the track continued not to be able as a paid download in Australia, it’as now been deleted as a single.

Why? By deleting the single Jesse McCartney’s record company purports to drive consumers to purchase his recently released album. There’s a far higher profit margin in the sale of a $25 to $30 album compared to a $4 or $5 single. It’s all about profit maximisation and return to shareholders. Local retailer HMV told me on the phone that while they had no more copies of Jesse’s single in stock, and wouldn’t be receiving any in the future, they had “plenty” of copies of the album.

US readers may think Big Deal, the single’s been deleted. But Australia, like many other markets and unlike the US, still has a healthy singles market. Consumers expect to be able to buy the #1 single in shops!

Driving consumers to purchase the album instead of the single isn’t a new recording industry marketing tactic, but it is a good tactic from the record company’s point of view.

Jesse’s album is currently at #7 in the Oz albums chart, up from #10. And it’s being supported by a substantial television advertising campaign and will probably continue to move up the albums chart next week, and over the next weeks. And as existing stocks of Jesse’s single quickly disappear from stores, it’ll drop out of the charts.

I hate to generalise, but much of Jesse’s fan base is young and female – including individuals who are also fans of his “Summerland” show, which is shown internationally on television. Not all consumers, and especially not all teenage and pre-teenage girls, will want, or be able to, pay $25 or $30 for a single song.

While some teenage girls have substantial financial resources, many live within a strict budget. As a result, there’ll be another effect of the decision by Jesse’s record company to delete his single. Many would-be consumers will turn to p2p networks and mp3 websites to make ‘unauthorised’ downloads of his “Beautiful Soul”. This is because it’s the only way many consumers can obtain the song so they can play it on their digital music players – short of paying $25 or $30 for a single song, which many will be reluctant or unable to do.

As mentioned earlier, Australian consumers still can’t buy a download of Jesse’s single from locally authorised mp3 websites.

While the US based iTunes sells Jesse’s single for US$0.99, (and it’s even cheaper at WalMart), Australians can only buy from the US based iTunes with a US issued credit card, which is obviously impractical for Jesse’s young Australian fans.

iTunes is currently unavailable in Australia. Previously, consumers could purchase Jesse’s CD single and (illegally) rip the track onto their computer, and download the file onto their digital music player. Now that avenue has been closed too. Consumers would have to purchase the entire album to rip the track, as the single has been deleted. There are 12 tracks on Jesse McCartney’s album. I don’t know if the other 11 tracks are good – and I don’t know of consumers will want to purchase the album.

So while ARIA disseminated the message in the recent Kazaa case that illegally downloading music is immoral and illegal, Jesse McCartney’s record label (an ARIA member) has failed to make the track available as an authorised digital download, and has now deleted the single – thereby possibly driving consumers to p2p networks and mp3 websites.

And the ARIA blames a recent fall in CD sales on “continuing effect of competitive entertainment products”.

Not available on any web site:

• 1 BEAUTIFUL SOUL Jesse McCartney FMR
• 13 OOH AAH Tamara Jaber MGM
• 16 EVIE PARTS 1, 2 & 3 The Wrights FP/U/EMI
• 21 WHY DO YOU LOVE ME Garbage FMR
• 24 WHATEVER WILL BE Tammin RAN/SBME

5 songs in the top 25 = 20%

Available on all websites:

• 2 THE SPECIAL TWO EP Missy Higgins VIR/EMI
• 3 ALMOST HERE Delta Goodrem and Brian McFadden EPI/SBME
• 4 1, 2 STEP Ciara LAF/SBME
• 6 LET ME LOVE YOU Mario J/SBME
• 12 GET RIGHT Jennifer Lopez EPI/SBME
• 20 DO SOMETHIN’ Britney Spears JVE/SBME
• 23 SHIVER Natalie Imbruglia SBME
• 25 HOLIDAY Green Day WARNER

Eight songs in the top 25 = 32%

Alex Malik

[Malik specialises in intellectual property rights enforcement in the digital age. He's also an ex-ARIA in-house lawyer and former senior legal officer at the Australian Communications Authority, Canberra.]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2005 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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