Open Media Review

Financial Times (UK) Article Urging Copyright Holders to Embrace Downloads

An industry group, The MCP-PRS Alliance, representing primarily songwriters, publishers and composers, in conjunction with online measurement company, Big Champagne, has released a study that strongly suggests the cost of piracy is well worth the opportunities for success afforded by embracing online downloads and pay-what-you-will pricing models.

Reader Kevin Crosby sent in the story with the following comment:

An article in the Financial Times urging the music industry in particular to stop fighting piracy and start embracing the technology instead. The author suggests that the cost of stamping out piracy is the equivalent of throwing good money after bad. What if the music industry routed all the money spent on lawyers and investigators to the development of a new business model?

The study seems primarily, if not exclusively based on Radiohead’s experimental online release of their album, In Rainbows. The researchers strongly suggest, though, that this example among others lowers the bar for others looking to build new business models and experiment with their own distribution and pricing.

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