Up until now, the RIAA often complained about unauthorised file sharing to be the main reason for declining sales. However, now they admit that only 16% of music obtained by consumers has been sourced illegally from file sharing services. Bootleg CDs including home copied CDs account for 29% of sources of music, while official CDs account for around 50% of the music consumers obtain.
With nearly double the amount of pirated music being distributed on CDs than online, it is clear that the RIAA is aiming to get as many CD releases copy-protected as they can, especially the potential big sellers. In the past few months, copy-protected CDs are gradually becoming more common. The very first discs aimed to prevent or limit PC playback and had poor compatibility with existing players, however this changed quite a lot with recent discs having near universal CD-Audio player compatibility, allowing a limited number of personal copies and are in fact selling very well.
So far the main drawback with copy protected CDs is the lack of iPod support. However, as Apple's iTunes is a competitor to music CDs, Apple is so far refusing to license its FairPlay DRM technology, in an aim to get consumers to purchase music from iTunes instead. On the other hand, it has been reported that as the copy-protection restrictions are Windows software based, Apple users are often unaffected and can easily rip their 'copy-protected' CDs onto their Mac or iPod using iTunes.
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The RIAA's chief executive, Mitch Bainwol, last week said music fans acquire almost twice as many songs from illegally duplicated CDs as from unauthorised downloads, Associated Press reports. According to Bainwol, in turn citing figures from market watcher NPD, 29 per cent of the recorded music obtained by listeners last year came from content copied onto recordable media. Only 16 per cent came from illegal downloads. Legal downloads accounted for four per cent of music acquisitions, while official CDs accounted for almost 50 per cent of the total. The RIAA's favoured solution appears to be copy-protected CDs, which are gradually spreading throughout the music CD market. This approach "is an answer to the problem that clearly the marketplace is going to see more of," Bainwol told the news agency. The full article can be read here. |
As the RIAA are constantly on the battle of fighting off illegal file sharing, I would not be surprised if a good portion of former P2P users have resorted back to exchanging copied CDs with their friends. However, as the percentage of copy protected CDs increase, the RIAA are creating another problem with the number of iPod fans. As Apple refuses to license out its FairPlay technology, the only way consumers can get their music on their iPod is to get around the copy-protection. Unfortunately, this in turn defeats the purpose of having copy protection on CDs as this iPod 'work-around' ends up allowing the user to distribute their music again! :p
Feel free to discuss about file sharing and its legal issues on our Music Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues.
Source: The Register - Internet
