Revisiting the carrot versus the stick, from a global perspective

In this new report from the team at TechDirt, including Mike Masnick (who features frequently on this blog), the recurring question over whether the best way to curb digital piracy is with punitive measures or not takes centre stage.

Uniquely, the authors adopt a case study approach, focusing on France, Sweden, UK, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand - countries which have brought new anti-piracy laws into effect in the recent past.

Overwhelmingly, the conclusion is that anti-piracy laws lead to short-term success at best, and are costly to implement. Or, put another way, the carrot is the way to go in the shape of business innovation, including improved legal alternatives to digital piracy.

The report is short and easy to grasp, presented in a sensible way which is simple to navigate.

It is, however, lacking details of the research which has been reviewed - this is surprising.

Nonetheless, it comes recommended.

Tweets @musicpiracyguy

Movie Piracy vs. Music Piracy

Much has been said on this blog about the difference between music and movie piracy. Here's another entry, bringing us bang up to date.

Cox and Collins (2014) find that prolific music pirates typically demonstrate a greater propensity to substitute legal content for illegal content, whereas heavy movie downloaders are more willing to pay for legal alternatives.

Why might this be the case? Well for one thing, movie pirates are deterred more by an awareness of the negative effects of piracy on the film industry.

This is interesting, and might stem from the greater transparency with the film industry in terms of box office stats and the increased engagement of movie insiders in the public domain. The music industry is not known for its transparency.

Tweeps @musicpiracyguy

References

Cox, J. and Collins, A. (2014). Sailing in the same ship? Differences in factors motivating piracy of music and movie content. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 50, 70-76.

Recommended book: The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music

Love you, Sage.

Check out this new text, The Sage Handbook of Popular Music, which you ought to be able to obtain from your finest local library.

It's a monster, with 35 chapters from 36 Popular Music scholars. And, it's great.

Specific to this blog, there's much discussion on digital music trends, with Sinnreich (2015) for example, debunking the myth that piracy hit the music industry by surprise. Other chapters address issues concerning copyright, copying, movie soundtracks, live music, etc.

Everything you might except, then some - including case studies of Jay-Z, Amanda Palmer, Radiohead, and all of the usual suspects.

It comes highly recommend specifically because it is extremely wide-reaching, but self-contained, given the volume of chapters included. For that reason, you might dive in to read about one particular topic, but end up learning all about something else entirely.

Throw in a few beers and some great music, and you have yourselves as good a night-in as you can have in 2015.

Twankers @musicpiracyblog

References 

Bennett, A. and Waksman, S. (Eds.) (2015). The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music. London, England: Sage.

Sinnreich, A. (2015). Music Cartels and the Demateriailzation of Power. In A. Bennett and Waksman, S. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (pp. 613-628). London, England: Sage.

Why young people engage in music piracy

Bonneville-Roussy et al. (2013), drawing from a huge dataset involving over 250,000 participants, find that the degree of importance attributed to music declines with age.

That is not to say that older people do not care about music, but young people listen to music far more than do middle-age adults, and young people listen to music in a wider variety of contexts.

Given music piracy research finds young people as principally involved in music piracy, perhaps it can be simply accounted for by the fact that they listen to more music?

Tweats @musicpiracyguy

References

Bonneville-Roussy, A., Rentfrow, P.J., Xu, M.K. and Potter, J. (2013). Music through the ages: trends in musical engagement and preferences from adolescence through middle adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(4), 703-717.

           

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.

Tweets @musicpiracyguy

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.

Twweeeets @musicpiracyblog