Music industry raises NBN fears as legal digital sales take off
Fast broadband will kill us
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As Australians turn from freetards into digital music buyers, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) (IPFI) and Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) have responded by bleating that the National Broadband Network will destroy them unless the government revises copyright law in their favour.
In this IFPI report (PDF), the Australian market is lauded for finally showing some growth, from $AU382.7 million in 2011 to $AU398.1 million in 2012.
Importantly, the key growth point was digital sales, which surged by 31 percent from $AU140.5 million to over $AU184.3 million. That growth, for the first time, was enough offset the collapsing physical sales – down 12 percent from $AU242 million to $AU214 million.
In other words, now that the music industry has been dragged by the ear into the world of legal digital downloads, customers are buying with enthusiasm. If 2013 were to reproduce the 2012 changes, then digital will overtake physical purchases this year.
IFPI attributes the growth, in part, to the arrival of Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, Samsung Music Hub, JB Hi-Fi Now and MOG.
The tone is soured by ARIA’s complaint that the NBN will spoil everything: “if more action isn’t taken by the Government and ISPs to curb piracy levels, the NBN could have disastrous results for the local industry”, the report states.
It quotes ARIA’s Dan Rosen as saying that the NBN rollout, “without the necessary copyright protection in place, will be a catalyst for increased online piracy across the country.”
Pointing to a model that’s been so successful in New Zealand, IFPI complains that “Australia does not have a legislative ‘graduated response’ process nor does it have a process to facilitate site blocking.”
ARIA or IFPI seems to have a very optimistic view of the NBN construction schedule. The report states that the network should reach “90 percent of Australia’s population” within two years. The actual rollout is somewhat more modest, with a target of 3.5 million or so homes connected or passed by fibre by 2015. ®
COMMENTS
Stop Press from 1903
Buggy and carriage builders upset at rise in sales of motorized vehicles. Say it's killing their industry.
same-old
Blank cassettes will kill the music industry - We'd like an indiscriminate tax put on for us.
Blank CDs will kill the music industry - We'd like an indiscriminate tax put on for us.
NBN will kill the music industry - we'd like winning in court made easy for us.
When are they going to get a clue and stop treating customers as the enemy?
They just don't get it
The "music industry", well actually the outdated distribution channels that like to call themselves the music industry, don't get it?
The real reason they don't like advances like the NBN is because it allows the content creators to directly interact with the content consumers and cut out the middle-men (the distributors that like to call themselves the music industry). The increase in broadband availability and speed was a major contributing factor to the increase in on-line sales but somehow making faster broadband more available is going to destroy the industry. The real music industry is alive and well it has just started to realise what consumers of other products have known for a while... if you can cut out the middle man you offer better value so the consumers can save some of their hard earned cash for other things while still giving the content creators the same level of remuneration.
The IPFI and ARIA aren't about protecting the interests of the content producers... they are about ensuring the continuation of the monopoly of the distributors.
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