Why Virgin Radio's celebrated new anti-piracy strategy will not work

I recently stumbled upon an interesting new anti-piracy campaign from Virgin Radio which you can read more about here.

Essentially, it puts emphasis on the work which has gone into creating popular musical works and bears the tagline: 'If you knew what went into it, you wouldn't steal it'.

I kinda like it, in as much as it is thought provoking and a softer touch than some more recent anti-piracy strategies.

But it won't work.

First of all, it makes the perennial mistake of using the word 'steal', likening piracy to theft when it is not theft but copyright infringement. Put another way, it's confusing.

The main issue however, is that it focuses on musical works by musicians who are dead. Some insight from my recent Doctoral thesis strongly suggests that people are keen to buy music from emerging artists, but less so for successful ones. At the heart of this is where the money goes.

You can't support a dead artist financially.

Also, most of the artists in the spotlight will not strike a chord with the key demographic of interest: young people.

The emphasis should have been on popular contemporary artists - ones who are alive.

Twitter @musicpiracyblog

Recommended book: How Music Works

It has been discussed many times on this blog over the years, and now I can announce a formal book review of David Byrne's 'How Music Works' which you can access here if you are quick, or here if you are not.

It's in its second edition now, and it wouldn't surprise me if it went into its third and beyond.

Clink the links above to read more, and click here to buy it on Amazon. Other booksellers are available.

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A Cool Idea

Slightly off topic, but anyways.

Was listening to the immersive, joyous indulgence of the new Four Tet album 'Morning/Evening' in a summerhouse in Finland last week and the sound carried across the water in a really strange way that completely changed the 'mix' of the album.

This inspired some experimentation playing some albums I know more intimately from different devices and in different locations and inspired a cool idea: why not offer up alternative mixes of albums on streaming services?

Let me explain.

If albums sounded slightly (or radically) different each time you listened to them, you would have more reason to listen to them repeatedly. In effect, it would be a different experience every time.

Audiophiles are already equipped to do so by varying different levels and customising the sound as they desire, but for your average Joe or Josephine, this might not be such a fun thing to do.

If however, artists streamed multiple versions of albums on streaming services, right down to different vocal takes etc., then it would be a cool way to listen to the album over and over and get something different out of it every time.

That is not to say that I do not think that a final 'album' should not exist, because it should - an artist should still of course release the end product of their labours. I just think, in this new world of exclusive content and all of that, this could be an easy and interactive way to encourage people to stream music from subscription services multiple times.

I guess it would be a different way of listening to early demos and outtakes etc., but in a more subtle way.

Anyhow, just a thought. I have them from time to time. Sometimes I write them down, often I do not.

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Reflections on a key article from 2010

It's hard for me to believe that five years have passed since the publication of Williams et al.'s key paper 'The attitudes and behaviours of illegal downloaders', from a 2015 issue of Aslib Journal of Information Management (see below).

It is one of the first papers to incorporate meta-analysis methodology, effectively summarising the research into the topic up until that point. In doing so, it argues, convincingly, that the digital world is not the same as the physical world and that new business models are needed.

Critically, it concedes that: "The research, however, shows a maze of contradictions and complexities in this sensitive and controversial subject. More research is clearly needed, especially with a wider demographic population, and with other devices than PCs that can capture and download digital content” (p. 298).

The need for more research persists today. 

Little is known about digital piracy.

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References

Williams, P., Nicholas, D. and Rowlands, I. (2010). The attitudes and behaviours of illegal downloaders. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 62(3), 283–301.

What about video game piracy?

Was searching for some information on video game piracy and stumbled upon this report by Arxan, an app protection company.

Turns out video games are pirated too.

As a non-gamer, I was not up to date with the volume of online games which are consumed, with knock-on effects on piracy. I figured it was nigh on impossible to pirate video games, and that this was a big factor in their success. As an industry, the video games market is of course bigger than both the music and movie industries.

Digging into the literature just now on video game piracy, and hope to find something more concrete. 

I'm interested in it as music is a big part of video games, with songs released through music-based video games, for example.

For now, Ruri (2013) shines a light on the video games industry as having adapted by diversifying revenue to subscription services for online communities for example. 

The music industry must similarly diversify revenues through not only licensing but by bundling music with other products etc.

Tweets @musicpiracyblog

References

Ruri, L. (2013). Business models and strategies in the video game industry: an analysis of Activision-Blizzard and Electronic Arts (Master's thesis).