Interesting feature
about filesharing in ‘The Mirror’ – a UK mass-market tabloid newspaper. Basically:
Pre-recorded CDs are in decline, but record stores aren’t worried by filesharing – people will still buy nicely-packaged original music/films by choice (not by RI/MPAA threats).
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CD R.I.P.
Why your shiny new album collection is being made obsolete by the march of MP3
By David Edwards
TO most of us, they still feel like the cutting edge of technology. But the CD already has one foot in the grave.
An estimated 300 billion compact discs have been sold to music-lovers worldwide since 1982. But figures out this week show a dramatic slump.
It’s all the result of the wildfire growth of another music format, the MP3 file.
The digitised music file – until recently the domain of internet geeks who illegally swapped them for free over the web – is suddenly becoming the main hope for a music industry facing crisis.
This week, two developments have led many to predict that the way people buy and listen to music has changed for ever, with MP3 files set to make CDs redundant within a decade.
HMV, Britain’s largest music retailer, surprised the industry by announcing it will set up its own website allowing customers to bypass its stores and download digital MP3 files on to their computers and portable players.
Subscribers can choose from almost 100,000 online tracks for £4.99 a month.
And EMI, which owns the catalogues of Robbie Williams and the Beatles, is to launch a similar website as its share price slides.
This week its stock fell five per cent and it is expected to be kicked out of the FTSE100, the list of Britain’s top 100 companies, on September 10.
The firm lays the blame squarely at the door of MP3 – the very format it now hopes will reverse its fortunes.
Industry chiefs have been complaining since 1999 that people downloading music off the net were hitting CD sales.
They called in the lawyers to try to stamp out the online trade, but CD sales still fell 15 per cent between April and June.
IN the late 90s, the free trade in MP3 files proliferated unchecked across the internet in what will probably be remembered as a golden age for fans.
Enthusiasts could log on to websites, type the name of an album they wanted and download it within half an hour.
Although people have always copied music, usually on to cassettes, the internet meant the quantity of material available was greater than ever before.
Alarmed that its members’ profits were under threat, the Recording Industry Association of America decided to act and chose to make an example of Napster. It was charged with copyright violations and was shut down last year after a protracted legal battle.
Napster, launched by 19-year-old college dropout Shawn Fanning in 1999, had eclipsed all other sites to become the largest on the internet.
With a million tracks available, it was a hit with 40 million users, although pop stars including Robbie Williams, the Corrs and Boyzone called for it to be closed down – not surprisingly, as they were losing vast amounts of royalties.
But the renegade websites were brought to their knees through the courts, and today the music industry itself believes MP3 is the answer to how we will listen to music in the future.
It has great benefits: very few overheads, no production costs, no packaging and, potentially, no need for record shops.
Music is delivered over the internet direct to your PC. Stand-alone players, smaller than a Sony Walkman, are also available and are already one of the biggest-selling gadgets.
Some models can store more than 5,000 songs. And because they have no moving parts, they do not skip, making them ideal for walkers and joggers. In 2000 there were just 9,000 of the players in UK households. Today the figure stands at 150,000 sales a year and it is set to grow to a million by 2005.
By contrast, sales of CD players have fallen as the market has become saturated. A total 900,000 were sold this year, 200,000 fewer than two years ago, and the figure is expected to fall steadily over the next decade.
Paul Myers, who runs the legal music website wippit.com, is convinced that the rise of MP3s means British music chains must now evolve or die.
Paul, 35, says: “You hear a lot of whingeing from the record companies about sales going down, but their reaction has been incredibly slow. They are only doing now what they should have done five years ago.
“A lot of these free sites are so tempting because they allow people to download an entire CD collection without having to pay a fortune.
AT last the record labels are starting to realise they have to change, and I think we will see some big transformations in the High Street.
“I predict that soon you’ll be able to walk into a store and just sit down on a computer and pay to download a CD on to a blank disc.
“Further down the line, you will be able to download tracks on to your mobile phone.
“You’ll start getting MP3 players built into cars and you could start to see the demise of the pre-recorded CD altogether. Artists needn’t worry, because people will still have to pay for the music.”
Stuart Rowe, e-commerce director for HMV Europe, thinks MP3 does not herald the end of the traditional record shop, but he adds: “A growing number of customers are ready for digital music.
“We have always operated alongside people taping music illegally and we don’t perceive the free websites as a threat.
“People may download albums, but they have a very human need to own the original. When a film is shown on television, we often get people trying to buy it on video or DVD.
“Our aim is to give people the widest possible access to pre-recorded music in whichever format they most require it, whether this is through our website or via our stores.
“Our business is giving music to people in whatever way they want to buy it.”
The key phrase being “buy it”. If the record industry is to survive the impact of MP3, it must win the fight to control it and sell it. And in the long run, it’s in everyone’s interests that it succeeds.
The business is totally dependent on the massive revenues generated by music sales. How else are they going to pay all those millions to Robbie and co?
PLUG INTO PICK OF THE PLAYERS
MP3 players are taking off fast, but how do they line up? AMY VICKERS chooses the best of the current models
iPOD
APPLE’S player is the finest around, with great looks, loads of functions and whopping 20-gig hard drive – enough for 4,000 songs. £400
MUVO
CREATIVE Labs’ little number is probably the simplest on the market. No cables or software – it just pulls apart and slots into your computer. Has 128 megs of memory – about 20 songs. £100
NIKE
THIS range of MP3 players is for sporty types who don’t want their music jogging when they are. The PSA Play
120, which holds up to two hours of music, was the first in this rather coveted and expanding range. Pricey, however. £270
RIO RIOT
HAS a 20-gig hard drive and is smaller than a paperback book. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to use as other players, even if it looks pretty and has one of the best displays.£350
ARCHOS
THE Multimedia Jukebox is the ultimate super-gadget, combining MP3 with a 20-gig hard drive, a clip-on camera and camcorder and colour picture viewer.
But it’s not as straight-forward
to use as it could be, and it’s expensive.
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