Loss of funds from one of the "Big Four" could force them to scale back some of their efforts in fighting music piracy.
There’s an interesting story out today about how EMI, one of the music industry’s so-called "Big Four" record labels, wants to reduce the amount of funding it doles out annually to the IFPI, RIAA, and other national associations that represent music companies and the fight against music piracy.
After being recently taken over by a private equity group called Terra Firma, EMI is currently looking for ways to "substantially" reduce the amount of money it pays out to trade groups and other lobbying organizations.
Considering that they’ve poured hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-piracy efforts over the years to no avail, and in light of the continued decline of CD sales, it only makes sense that they’d want to reassess continued funding of a wrong headed approach to digital music distribution.
According to Reuters each of the four major music labels are said to contribute some $132.1 million USD to the IFPI, the RIAA, as well as a number of other national associations. With music piracy more rampant than ever EMI probably realized that it could better use that money for artist development and support instead.
This move by EMI to cut off its funding for the RIAA and IFPI seems to be in keeping with its recent pattern of approaching the problems of music piracy and distribution quite differently than its counterparts. For if you recall, EMI was the first record label to begin offering DRM-free tracks for sale on Apple’s iTunes.
Now it isn’t for certain yet that they’ll cease funding as is being rumored by company insiders, but either way it doesn’t bode well for the RIAA and IFPI, which is certainly a good thing for the rest of us.
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