So What’s the Deal Here?
Some numbers might prove that piracy hasn’t been as bad for the Recording Industry as the RIAA would have you think. While it’s not up to me to dispute the legality of pirating music or other copyrighted materials, I feel obligated to take a look at some numbers just to be sure that the initial outbreak of music piracy early in this millennium wasn’t such a bad thing in the long run. While over the past half-decade or so music sales in the U.S. have raised and declined, the change over the years has been relatively insignificant. Also many sound theories revolve around exposure, things like file sharing have exposed masses to music they may not have otherwise have heard and in the hay-day of Napster the RIAA’s sales went up, rather than down. It should also be noted that the recording industry is not only selling on a physical medium any longer, due, in part, to piracy methods, but in a digital medium in which music is sold in far greater amounts than previously feasible. Despite this trend of exposure and increase in digital sales, the likes of the RIAA and other intellectual property owners, claiming a loss as a result of piracy fail to report how they figured out how much they’ve actually lost.
“A Self-Serving Hyperbole”
While the RIAA claims great losses for the piracy of music over the internet, it has been established that piracy has a decidedly small accountable effect on sales despite the constant stream of claims that it has a major effect on record sales, in fact the evidence points to the contrary. In 2004, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) –which represents 1,450 Recording Companies in 75 countries–reported that the trade revenues for the recording industry worldwide to be only $400 Million. This nearly tripled in 2005 to $1.1 Billion. This is due, in part, to digital sales, which it admits in its 2006 Piracy Report that P2P applications such as Kazaa opened up possibilities in the digital market for the industry. Moreover, the claims of piracy’s effect on sales of intellectual property–videos, music, and computer applications, et cetera et cetera– worldwide have been found to be highly inflated. A report recently issued by the Australian Institute of Criminology states that recent piracy statistics are “Self-Serving” and “Unverified” –though this involves a company or companies in Australia piracy losses in the U.S. are similarly difficult to verify.
My Take, and a Few Notes
I’ve long felt that the effect of piracy on the music industry is not nearly as great as the likes of the RIAA make it, while it certainly has an effect–figures range from between 0% to 15% depending on who commissions the examination of the effect of piracy on the recording industry–I don’t think it should be believed that its significant in any way. Furthermore, the exposure that P2P provided to music enthusiasts worldwide had a phenomenal effect on the Recording Industry’s revenues in 1999 and 2000 (Napster’s Hay-day), but there was a noted decline after Napster was shutdown, though a connection between the loss of Napster and the loss of revenues was never made. Instead it was generally blamed on piracy, instead of natural trends or the loss of exposure–even if the exposure was illegal. While this isn’t to say that piracy didn’t play a part in the next few years in dropping revenues, or that Napster was entirely to thank for the spike in revenues in 1999 and 2000.
In closing on an unrelated note, I regret to say that this will be my final K&C column. It has been a real treat, and following Kram has been a real challenge.
The PCMech.com weekly newsletter has been running strong for over 8 years. Sign up to get tech news, updates and exclusive content - right in your inbox. Also get (several) free gifts.
