Denver Post Defiance propels music trading Kevin Schiltz is a punk-rock loving, skateboard-toting sophomore at the University of Colorado, and he's part of a powerful force threatening to turn the music industry on its head. Schiltz downloads all of his favorite punk rock and reggae songs off the Internet on file-sharing websites. He doesn't care about copyright laws, and he doesn't plan to change his behavior - despite a dizzying number of lawsuits expected to be filed next month against illegal file traders by the recording industry. "I've heard stories about people being busted," Schiltz said. "But CDs cost too much." Nearly three-quarters of all Internet users Schiltz's age - 19 to 29 - feel the same way: They don't care that the music they swap online is copyright protected, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & Life Project. That mind-set goes for 67 percent of Internet users of all ages who download songs. The survey underscores a pervasive problem faced by myriad businesses these days: People are used to getting online content for free. For years pornography dealers were the few businesses able to get people to open their wallets and pay for online content. And only recently have other businesses such as dating service Match.com turned a profit. Now, as the availability of free Internet downloads bites into the music industry's profits, big record labels are struggling to reinvent themselves, change that freebie Internet culture and stop, for good, illegal file swapping. "The recording industry faces an uphill battle," said Mary Madden, author of the Pew survey. "The whole culture of free content online is deeply rooted. People have become accustomed to it." Yet Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff says that culture indeed can be reversed. He notes that people pay for bottled water when tap water is free. Flexible pricing and convenience, mixed with a little fear, he said, will be key to getting people to pay for music online. That includes lawsuits. The music industry effectively shut down file-sharing pioneer Napster two years ago in court, but a number of copycat file-sharing services have since emerged. In April, a Los Angeles judge said file-sharing companies including Morpheus and Grokster could not be held liable for users' illegal activity. So the Recording Industry Association of America is preparing to sue high-volume individual users next month instead. The tactic may be working. Market research firm NPD Group reported last week that the number of songs illegally swapped online dropped to 655 million files in June from 852 million files in April, due primarily to the RIAA's threats. Record labels are also spoofing file-sharing sites by uploading what appears to be a popular song but is actually a loop of a song's chorus or a message from the artist scolding the file sharer. "The free experience is not so great anymore," Bernoff said. Legal experts say the Pew survey on how people view copyright laws is a sad glimpse into society's moral turpitude and argue that cracking down with litigation is the chief way to change that attitude. Edward Gac, a business law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, compares illegal file sharing to stealing belongings from someone's home. "If we did this for every other property, we would have chaos," Gac said. "We can't let the Internet be the wild frontier forever." Yet the music industry must deal with a powerful backlash by consumers, said Michael Bracy, government relations director for the Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit that represents artists and consumer interests in music. "There is a real perception that the recording industry is more about trying to shut down technology and make as much money as they can," he said. Consumers say concerts cost too much - $50 to $80 a ticket - and CDs, at $13 to $18 apiece, do too, Bracy said. Plus, consumers, including Schiltz, say that the consolidation of radio stations and the handful of powerful recording labels have created homogeneous sounds and don't give listeners access to new and different kinds of music. "The existing industry doesn't work for artists or for fans," Bracy said. "The music industry is broken." Bracy points to the nation's No. 1 radio station owner, Clear Channel, which owns, programs or sells airtime for some 1,225 radio stations, including eight stations in the Denver market. "I think it's hard to find new music," said Schiltz, the CU student. With file sharing, he said, he has discovered as many as 10 bands. Schiltz said there are enough people who share his views that it will ultimately force the industry to change the way it operates. "They'll figure out something," he said. Bracy said the music industry should embrace new technology. That's starting to happen. It took the music industry two to three years to realize file sharing was a huge threat to their business, Forrester's Bernoff said. But when they realized it, he said, record labels moved faster than any other media in history. As many as 10 new Windows- based music services are expected to come online in the next six to nine months, Bernoff said. The industry's early music sites, MusicNet and PressPlay, fell far from what consumers wanted, Bernoff said. Selection was limited. The sites set restrictions on burning music to a CD or transferring it to a portable MP3 player. And consumers had only one payment option: monthly subscriptions rather than the option to pay per-song. Apple came along in April and changed everything with its iTunes online music store, offering Mac users more flexibility, more selection and more payment options - 99 cents per song. Apple will come out with a Windows-compatible service by year's end. And other new music services will follow Apple's lead in terms of flexibility and selection. Still, illegal downloads have taken a huge toll on the industry, said Kim Guggenheim, a Beverly Hills music lawyer who represents a number of artists, including Smash Mouth and jazz artist Al Jarreau. Major record labels are contemplating consolidation and CD sales are down 15 percent over the past three years. Bernoff's Forrester blames at least one-third of that drop on file sharing. "It's not just the recording companies - the faceless corporations - that are losing money or the rich artists and rich songwriters," Guggenheim said. "It cuts across everyone in the industry." Illegal downloads, Guggenheim said, translate into less money for new records, which means fewer new artists are given a chance and fewer producers and studio musicians are employed. "The music industry is in terrible shape," Guggenheim said. Some smaller artists don't necessarily agree. Online file sharing gave Ten Mile Tide, a band from San Francisco, its start and a following of fans. The folk rock band has a partnership on file-sharing site Kazaa.com and on Cornerband.com, which lets people search for and rate new artists and download songs or buy albums. Ten Mile's guitarist Justin Munning said that despite the free downloads, Ten Mile Tide's record sales increased tenfold, allowing its six members to quit their day jobs in June, Munning said. The band also just scheduled a three- month nationwide tour based on e- mails from fans requesting they visit. Munning said the Internet may finally allow more independent bands to make a livable wage playing music rather than making just a handful of record labels and superstars rich. "There's a shift of balance of power in the music industry," Munning said. "The whole attitude is going to have to change." To view the original article, please click here. |