The fight by record labels to curb illegal music downloads is one they will unfortunately never win. There are simply too many people who don’t want to pay for music, and too many ways for them to go about getting it for free. When one site (Napster) is shot down, two pop up to take their place.
If you can’t beat em, join em.
According to a New York Times Article ,the Universal Music Group and Virgin Media on Monday said that they had reached a deal that would offer consumers unlimited downloads as part of a partnership that steps up antipiracy enforcement.
Universal, the largest recording company in the world, said it would offer its entire to customers of Virgin Media for a monthly subscription. The announcement comes the day after Virgin Media decided to close its flagship store in Times Square and focus on virtual sales.
The music will be offered sans a copyright protection, which keeps files from being uploaded onto virtual devices where they could be replicated on other computers. This feature is found on most other legal downloading sites such as iTunes.
In return for the removal of this feature, Virgin Media, agreed to execute measures reducing piracy on its network, something that other broadband providers have resisted. Virgin has reportedly contacted Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, among others, in an effort to expand their offerings.
This deal is monumental for many reasons. First of all, the rock of the record store industries, located in the heart of the business capital of the world is closing. For long time music fans, this marks the end of an era. Conversely, the powers that be of the music world have acknowledged that they cannot compete with illegal music downloads. According to that same Times article, 95% of all online music is distributed illegally. Rather than continue to watch their money fall through the cracks, music industry leaders finally are getting the message that the “times they are a changing” (Bob Dylan).
As the band SemiSonic put nicely, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end”. Let’s hope this online venture can save the sanctity of the music industry from internet pirates determined to get something for nothing.
No comments:
Post a Comment