IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2009, rehashing the same mantra that one illegal music download equates to one lost sale.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organization that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide, has published its new Digital Music Report for 2009 and the numbers once again just don’t add up.
The IFPI estimates that over 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008, and after subtracting tallied legal music purchases, claims a 95% piracy rate. This is sensationalist nonsense because it implies that their livelihood is dependent upon an elusive 5% that remains. To claim perceived losses in this manner is ridiculous.
Even odder still is that the report says on the one hand that “around 95% of all music is downloaded without payment to artists or producers,” but on the other that only 16% of European Internet users “regularly swap music on P2P networks.”
So what this really means is that only a minority of people are downloading music illegally, that they’re just doing it in perhaps greater volume. This belies the logic of their 95% argument since it’s actually a minority of people they’re so concerned with. Only 16% of the population is responsible for 95% of the problem so one should conclude that they’ve been able to successfully capture 84% of the marketplace. Where’s the doom and gloom in that?
The only real issue, and I think the others will agree, is that the study suggests that it’s doing a terrible job of delivering digital music to the 84% who apparently pay to download music. If an overwhelming majority are willing to pay for music yet you can only deliver a tiny fraction of overall demand it says something is SERIOUSLY wrong with your business model. Either that, or Europeans are just really cheap, which I’m sure isn’t the case.
Further questioning the merits of the report’s conclusions, the IFPI’s says that the digital music business internationally saw a sixth year of expansion in 2008, growing by an estimated 25% to $3.7 billion USD. It now accounts for around 20% of recorded music sales, up from 15% in 2007. So despite all the rhetoric, it seems to be grudgingly pushing ahead with what people have wanted since way back in 1999 with the advent of Napster – DIGITAL MUSIC.
jared@zeropaid.com
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