Music Industry Should Actually Thank File Sharers

The music industry seems infatigable in its efforts to publish report after report that would convince the public that it’s not doing well with regard to the revenue generated by the sales of CDs and that the situation has one culprit only – yeah, you’ve guessed, file sharing.

Due to unsatisfactory figure readings for music sales in physical formats, the music industry has once again rushed into placing the blame on file-sharing, completely disregarding other important aspects of the problem at hand. The fact music industry keeps ignoring is that according to studies, file-sharers are buying more digital music compared to the average music consumer. And considering digital music is the new frontier, having gained a lot of ground in recent years, pirates are actually industry’s best source of profit.

Probably the greatest flaw in today’s music industry is its tendency to resist change. Instead of clinging on to the old-fashioned business model and holding digital piracy responsible for poor physical music sales, the industry would have a lot more to gain from shifting its perspective and improving the digital music sector. Truth is that with or without online piracy, physical music sales are likely to sink anyway due to the growing demand for digital music in the market.

Given the real situation, the message sent out by IFPI to the millions of potential buyers is dissimulated and blurry. The decision to maintain confusion among music consumers is probably part of IFPI’s plan to invigorate physical music sales by firmly attacking online file-sharing. Unfortunately, by doing so the industry causes more damage than good and misses the benefits of exploiting the online market in the process.

According to research reports conducted by IFPI itself, not only do file-sharers buy more digital music than the average music consumer, but also spend more on music than the latter. However, this raises the logical question: If file-sharers buy the most digital music, why do they also download it without paying? The explanation is simple – despite investing on average $100 a year in digital music, file-sharers’ demand for music exceeds their financial possibilities and therefore they start downloading music via file-sharing sites, where it’s free. Although the drive to buy is more pronounced among file-sharers, the burden of a scarce budget determines this category of music consumers to also turn to free download online resources.

On actual premises, file-sharing is a powerful indicator of the fact that the market has increased demand for music, and this tendency ultimately sustains piracy. Probably one of the easiest solutions to this problem would be the creation of more unlimited and unrestricted high quality online music services, as this would both benefit music consumers and reduce online piracy. In conclusion, music industry should stop swimming against the stream, and focus on supporting the smooth transition to the digital music market instead.

(via TorrentFreak)