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BBC Accedes To Record Label Whining

Culture

from the waaaaaaaaaah dept

Wed, Nov 2nd 2005 1:41pm — Carlo Longino
The BBC pissed off a slew of record labels when it put all nine of Beethoven's symphonies online for people to download earlier in the year. You'd think the labels would be grateful that the BBC was turning new audiences on to classical music, but, of course, the labels thought otherwise, completely missing the point of the downloads -- which even included introductory explanations before each symphony to help people learn about them. The BBC is planning to play 10 straight days of Bach's music next month on one of its stations, and it's succumbed to the record labels' whining (registration required), and won't offer complete downloads, if it offers any downloads at all. The British record-label trade group was upset that the BBC had offered the Beethoven downloads without consulting them, and it's unclear either why it's any of their business, or why they think it so damaged their business. While the symphonies were downloaded 1.4 million times, just 17% of the downloads were from the UK, and in any case, probably had a positive impact on record sales. Plenty of recordings of Beethoven's symphonies were available before the downloads, and there was nothing stopping people from buying them. Although the entertainment industry likes to inflate its loss claims and assumes that every download equals a lost sale, it's not the case. What's more likely is that people that never would have bought a Beethoven CD downloaded the recordings, and either decided they weren't interested, or decided they liked what they were hearing and became a fan -- a new fan that might buy another classical recording sometime. The assumption that because somebody will download something for free means they'd pay for it were the free download not available is completely bogus. Record labels repeating it over and over won't make it true.
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9 Comments

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  • identicon
    SV, 2 Nov 2005 @ 2:51pm

    No Subject Given

    God damn it I swear this is utterly absurd - DRM, the RIAA/MPAA lawsuits, the ADC "cop chips" everything... how the hell those guys sleep at night??

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    nonuser, 2 Nov 2005 @ 4:32pm

    if the labels don't own the rights to the recordin

    they have nothing to complain about. OTOH if the BBC is offering up their IP, they have a valid point. The BBC would need to get permission to do that. End of story.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      amazon10x, 2 Nov 2005 @ 4:47pm

      Re: if the labels don't own the rights to the reco

      they have nothing to complain about. OTOH if the BBC is offering up their IP, they have a valid point. The BBC would need to get permission to do that. End of story.

      Well said.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tim, 3 Nov 2005 @ 6:09am

      Re: if the labels don't own the rights to the reco

      If the BBC is offering-up their IP (as surely they may well be, since the BBC does play lots of artists' recordings) *and in not such a way as agreed with the companies*, *then* they might have a valid point.

      However, they still have a right to broadcast, and I still have a right to time-shift, so the record-companies can just STFU whinging, sit back and enjoy the way Radio 3 always announces even what label a given recording of a work is on, and treat it as fair publicity.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    crystalattice (profile), 2 Nov 2005 @ 7:39pm

    This is utterly absurd

    The music has been around for hundreds of years. I can't honestly see any IP that can be claimed, unless the BBC used a CD to post the music files. However, being the BBC, they probably own their own copies of the music and posted them.

    If that's the case, then the music companies can't say a bloody thing. AAMOF, that brings up a question I have: if you own a recording that the copyright has expired on, say an original 75rpm record, can you legally post the song on the 'net? I'm sure the record companies will say no, but can they legally stop you?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2005 @ 9:18pm

      Re: This is utterly absurd

      My thoughts exactly. This music has been around for a long time and how can people claim to own it. I think what they are talkinga bout is the specific group who played the music. However it would not be difficult to find an orchestra that would be willing to play some Beethoven and have their music downloaded. It would get the word out about them.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        zcat, 2 Nov 2005 @ 11:22pm

        Re: This is utterly absurd

        The compositions themselves are public domain. The performances are by the BBC's own orchestra, in BBC studios, recorded by BBC engineers. The BBC have every legal and ethical right to be doing whatever they like with those recordings, including giving them away!

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Newob, 3 Nov 2005 @ 2:18am

          Musicians unite!

          For thousands of years, nobody owned music; bards and bands and so forth could only make money from live performances, or by the generosity of philanthropists. Since the dawn of phonography, claims to ownership come to serve big companies more and more, and musicians less and less. The only solution now is for artists to release recordings of their music freely so that the real pirates, the record companies, will "own" an increasingly narrow selection of recorded music.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Torrent Man, 3 Nov 2005 @ 3:17am

    Torrents Rock

    I downloaded all nine symphonies just to prove that there is indeed a legitamate use for BitTorrent!

    So there!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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