IFPI, UK Police, Credit Card Companies Push People To Pirate Music, Rather Than Pay For It
from the did-they-really-do-that? dept
Bizarre move out of the IFPI. It's gleefully announced a new deal, in conjunction with the London Police and Visa and MasterCard to cut off credit card services to online music stores who the IFPI accuses of selling infringing MP3s. This is really targeting sites like MP3Fiesta, which is sort of a modern version of Allofmp3.com. Of course, what they seem to be missing is that both of these sites were examples of people, who would otherwise likely be downloading totally unauthorized versions, being willing to pay for MP3s at a much more reasonable price. What I never understood was why the music industry never realized that these sites actually showed a business model that worked. Tons of people were happy to pay for the music when the prices seemed much more reasonable. What these services really showed was how much the industry has artificially inflated the price of music.But, of course, in cutting off credit cards to those sites, two simple things are likely to happen in response: first, those sites will simply find alternative payment means. That may still limit some, but it hardly stops these sites from existing. But, more importantly, if people can't get music at these prices, it seems a lot more likely that they'll shift to totally free options, rather than go back to paying $0.99 per song (or more!). So, effectively, all this move really does is drive more people to stop paying for music. Is that what the record labels pay the IFPI to do these days?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: credit cards, liability, piracy, uk
Companies: ifpi, mastercard, visa
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The IFPI stats show that 15 markets seen growth in 2010 and most of them are piracy heavens but they only looked at Sweden and South Korea saying they grew because of though laws LoL
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Choose your poison, or pleasure
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Piracy is evil
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
While I do not think that 'pirating' music for personal use is 'stealing' (or even giving it away to others for that matter). I do think 'pirating' music and then selling that music for a profit is wrong. It does highlight that some people are willing to pay at a much lower price but that is no different than itunes showing that some people are willing to pay a high price. However, none of that makes it right for these operations to resell a product that they do not pay for - that really does sound a lot more like 'stealing'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I fail to see how he's suggesting that is OK. It's simply an observation that despite these services being infringing, people are still willing to pay for the music. If nothing else, it suggests that the price alone is not the reason for these people using the services - if that were the case then why pay rather than use P2P to "steal" the music?
Attack these sites if you wish, but there are lessons here for the industry if they choose to heed them. Shutting the sites down and doing nothing else will not service the consumer demand that's being met by these companies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
of course, given that that is the entire POINT in corporations (as opposed to other styles of business, where it varies) one shouldn't be surprised.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Only Mike Masnick could stand up for companies that pirate and steal money on top. Congrats for a new low Mike!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
He didn't he tried to point out to you what you could learn from this but you missed it.
Reading: it's a life skill.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
The tail does not wag the dog.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
What happens to any producer that tries to charge more then people are willing to pay?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
An intelligent industry would heed these trends and adjust accordingly. Remember, it's not just cheap prices that these sites offer over and above iTunes et al., they also offer full catalogues (e.g. AC/DC and Pink Floyd, who are not available through legal digital channels) and a choice of quality (IIRC, since I never use them, but I think most offer FLAC and other formats), and so on.
While these sites should be shut down if they're breaking trade laws or are illegal in their home country (both of which are questionable), the industry would get more sympathy if they accepted the fact that these sites are often offering a better service to their customers than they are.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Not quite true. The one I'm familiar with is Allofmp3, who paid the Russian collection society and offered money to the labels directly -- which they refused.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
It was the usual snarky Russian way of acting like they are playing ball, while at the same time stealing the ball, the hoop, and your shoes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
You seem to be missing the point.
The label prices are too high. The buyers at AllofMP3 weren't willing to pay those prices, but they were willing to pay the lower AllOfMP3 price.
This flies directly in the face of "people just want stuff for free," and indicates rather that people want things at a price they deem reasonable. This is up to the market (consumers) to decide, not labels. Except silly mechanisms like copyright monopolies prevent this kind of market balancing.
AllOfMP3 was doing the labels a favour by figuring out the real price people would be willing to purchase more content at.
25% of thousands of album sales at $2 is more than any percentage of ZERO sales at $10-$15.
Listen to consumers. Learn math. Make money.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
I think they were located entirely within Russia. People had to connect to servers located in Russia to buy stuff, so they weren't operating outside of Russia or violating copyright.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
HOLY CRAP and an ounce of weed taped on the back
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Credit Card Wars
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't pay for music.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]