JCA Media Studies: The true cost of free music downloading

Monday 22 February 2010

The true cost of free music downloading - Times Online

Why do people illegally download music? Because they can. The Government recently announced that it has persuaded the internet service providers (ISPs) to sit down with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and thrash out measures to curb illegal downloads by creating a voluntary framework that might work within anticipated tighter legislation.

This has been welcomed by most musicians, industry organisations and fair-minded consumers. Reasonable people agree that musicians should be paid for their work. I declare an interest, as deputy chairman of the BPI, although I am writing this in my private capacity as a songwriter, performer and label owner.

But there has been negative comment. Last week I read an article by an otherwise sane and respected musician and journalist who said that downloading music free was like %u201Cdownloading air%u201D, implying that because you can%u2019t see it, it should be free. He also said that it is %u201Cso cheap to get recorded music to the audience that artists no longer need a major label%u201D.

Hating major labels is about as useful as hating film companies and supermarkets. They exist. There will always be dominant players, but there are also about 800 independent record labels in the UK including my own, Dramatico, which has 14 staff and a network of about 50 freelancers around the world. Without the toil and passion of my employees my artists wouldn%u2019t be selling records. Without payment for the music made by our artists we wouldn%u2019t be able to pay our staff. Then the staff would leave and so would the artists.

If you could download a loaf of bread free you would. But you can%u2019t, thank God, because otherwise bakers would cease to exist and there would be no bread to download. Then we%u2019d all be dead, and good riddance to us, because we humans are greedy, thieving, conniving bastards, every last one of us. That%u2019s why there are laws to stop us.

It is tempting to top up your profile by giving your music away free on the web, or as Prince did, by means of a newspaper cover-mounted giveaway to millions of people (his previous album had sold fewer than 90,000 copies in the UK).

But let%u2019s not forget that Prince was paid handsomely for the stunt (at least �150,000). Equally Radiohead, who last year set up an honesty box for their Mercury-nominated album, In Rainbows, had already made millions with their previous albums, so you could argue they could afford to ask people to pay what they wanted to. And anyway, without being being cynical about their motivation, the %u201Cexperiment%u201D also wasn%u2019t bad in attracting attention for the physical release of the CD, which followed a few months later.

It%u2019s nothing new that the entertainment business is %u201Cdog eat dog%u201D. When I came up to London three times a week on the train from Winchester in 1968, a hopeful 18-year-old trying to sell my songs or get signed by, well, anyone really, there were four majors %u2013 EMI, Pye, Phillips and Decca. And there are four today %u2013 EMI, Universal, Warners, Sony/BMG and Universal. It was just as difficult to have a hit then as it is now. Just as hard to get noticed. The business was just as full of arrogant charlatans with kind, helpful faces.

Today it%u2019s a different mixture, though, with different challenges and opportunities. Bands and artists can display their wares on YouTube and MySpace, and record companies can audition artists without even leaving their offices.

But, because of this easier access, telling wheat from chaff is more difficult. Record companies have it easier and harder. It%u2019s easier to get the music to the online customer, but harder to protect it from theft. New business models are being sought and invented all the time. ISPs talking to record companies in order to limit online music theft through their broadband channels is good news for everyone except those who think all music should be free and musicians should go out of business.