Sure, there are pros and cons (what if I released a concept album, 'Monday'?), but I think this is genuinely a good move.
Coming into effect today, music will now be released on the same day - Friday.
Championed by IFPI, the move helps promote music and, perhaps most importantly, minimise music piracy by ensuring there are no international lags.
Though there has been little research on this that I know of, movie piracy has certainly been considered in academic literature.
Research into movie piracy (Danaher and Waldfogel, 2012) shows that longer release windows or lags between countries results in decreased box office returns.
Australia is often a focal point in this discussion, with Svensson et al. (2014) finding that Australians download more film and TV illegally than the rest of the world, with a delay in the release of film and TV titles (think: Game of Thrones).
Additionally, and more recently, Beirne (2015), in her thoughtful discussion on access in Australia, finds that media downloaded or streamed is more costly than in other countries; physical goods are also considerably more expensive, with shipping being a key issue here.
But what about music?
Well, we shall see.
The logic follows from the above that the same lag effect applies to music, but the evidence is not there; the economic impact of digital piracy overall, as discussed routinely on this blog, are difficult to measure.
However, I don't see how this affects anyone negatively. And that is a good thing.
Coming into effect today, music will now be released on the same day - Friday.
Championed by IFPI, the move helps promote music and, perhaps most importantly, minimise music piracy by ensuring there are no international lags.
Though there has been little research on this that I know of, movie piracy has certainly been considered in academic literature.
Research into movie piracy (Danaher and Waldfogel, 2012) shows that longer release windows or lags between countries results in decreased box office returns.
Australia is often a focal point in this discussion, with Svensson et al. (2014) finding that Australians download more film and TV illegally than the rest of the world, with a delay in the release of film and TV titles (think: Game of Thrones).
Additionally, and more recently, Beirne (2015), in her thoughtful discussion on access in Australia, finds that media downloaded or streamed is more costly than in other countries; physical goods are also considerably more expensive, with shipping being a key issue here.
But what about music?
Well, we shall see.
The logic follows from the above that the same lag effect applies to music, but the evidence is not there; the economic impact of digital piracy overall, as discussed routinely on this blog, are difficult to measure.
However, I don't see how this affects anyone negatively. And that is a good thing.
Tweets @ musicpiracyblog
References
Beirne, R. (2015). Piracy, Geoblocking, and Australian Access to Niche Independent Cinema. Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, 13(1), 18-31.
Danaher, B. and Waldfogel, J. (2012). Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales (Working Paper No. 1986299). Retrieved from Social Science Research Network: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1986299
Svensson, M., Larsson, S. and de Kaminski, M. (2013). Professionalization, Gender and Anonymity in the Global File Sharing Community. Piracy Effect, 1-8.
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