Are you ready to download your tunes?

I just want to kick this off by saying that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, seriously needs to update its name. Yes, some people do still buy vinyl records, but it’s hardly a significant enough proportion of the market to be taken seriously in a discussion of current music sales.

To say nothing of the fact that, read quickly, it kind of looks like “International Pornographic Industry Association,” which tends to make one giggle. Which is not conducive to being taken seriously in a debate. In the current discussion of the impact of digital downloads, for example, I would estimate that a significant proportion of the people who need a good stern talking-to about musical piracy have a better idea of what pornography is than they do about a phonograph.

The IFPI has just released a report, claiming, among other things, that
95 percent of digital music downloads are illegal, rather than from licensed sites. Estimating the revenue from legal sales of digital music at $US3 billion, the IFPI estimates that the young whipper-snappers have stolen $US57 billion dollars worth of music.

Further, extrapolating from the downturn in sales of CDs, the IFPI estimates many billions of lost dollars that should be flowing into the music industry’s coffers. A spokesperson for the industry said “in my day we’d have tanned the hides of these varmints with a hickory switch”. Well, actually no-one said that, I just made it up. But you can imagine someone from the Phonographic Industry (snicker) saying something like that, can’t you?

I love those sorts of numbers. It implies one of the great myths: that people steal stuff they would otherwise have bought. It’s quite likely that some people are indeed illegally downloading music that they knew beforehand would be worth purchasing and that they would have bought if it had not been for the temptation of a free thing. For the most part, though, people steal stuff they don’t particularly need or want, but which simply presents itself. Or they steal stuff they do need, but can’t afford. In either case, it’s very hard to pin a direct correlation between stuff that has been stolen and stuff that would otherwise have been bought.

Especially in the case of digital media, where the theft of one copy of a song doesn’t diminish the available stocks of copies of that song, pretty much any number you attach to piracy is going to be largely fantasy.

And of course, it ignores the other great truth: people might buy more music if there was more music worth buying. When the music stores are dominated by the likes of Britney and K-Fed and Paris and TV competition winners, can you blame people for not wanting to part with their hard-earned cash? Just typing that last sentence I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

In defence of the IFPI, it’s worth noting that if music were still sold on phonograph discs there would be no problem — you can’t download a lump of vinyl.

Matthew JC. Powell recently obtained the Travelling Wilburys box set on vinyl. And he rides a velocipede. Wire him a telegram on mjcp@optusnet.com.au

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