James Delahunty
24 Jan 2006 22:26
The BBC has questioned some of the Music Industry's biggest players using the most frequent queries from users of the BBC News website. The questions were answered by John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Steve Knott, managing director of HMV UK & Ireland and Brad Duea, president of Napster.
The BBC summarized the 8 most common questions as follows...
I'll add in the real questions from consumers that the BBC put to them, an answer and a link to the rest of the answers. I have chosen questions 1, 2, 5 and 8 to provide you with a sample.
Question 1:Will the price of tracks or albums be reduced with the more cost-effective digital distribution method? You don't have to manufacture the CD, package it, send it to the distributor/wholesaler, and finally the shops.
Rowan Smith, Exmouth
Answer 1, Brad Duea: First, you are correct that with digital distribution the labels have eliminated some of their previous costs associated with physical distribution. However, the labels have incurred some new costs. For example, the costs of encoding the tracks in the various bit rates in which they distribute the songs. Less obvious, however, are the costs the labels have incurred with regard to clearing the online rights for various artists and albums.
Second, in addition to the actual costs associated with the content, Napster also incurs bandwidth costs, storage and other hardware costs, customer service costs, marketing costs and other related costs.
Question 2: Do you believe people who are buying CDs legally and copying that music to an iPod should be punished - as they are, in fact, breaking the law?
Darren, Cardiff
Answer 2, Peter Jamieson: Consumers don't have the right to copy CDs in the UK and never have, and though we've never brought action against anyone for private copying, the advent of peer-to-peer and digital distribution has turned the issue on its head.
The real problem starts when people decide to upload their ripped CD collection to the internet for millions of others to take for free. There is nothing private about sharing your music collection with millions of others which is why we focus our anti-piracy efforts on the worst offenders.
Question 5: Given that every single Digital Rights Management (DRM)-protected song on the music download networks is still very easily found on any file-sharing network, what has DRM achieved other than alienating legitimate, legal, paying customers?
Andrew Livingston, London
Answer 5: John Kennedy: Without DRM, the explosion in the availability of music via digital channels would not have been possible. The purpose of DRM is not to alienate music fans, it is actually to improve your access to music.
There are now at least 10 ways in which you can legally enjoy music - the list includes: ringtone, master ringtone, phone download, phone stream, a-la-carte download, disc, subscription, online stream, UMD music for PlayStation, kiosk and video.
Without DRM, these options simply wouldn't be possible.
Question 8: The music industry is throwing itself wholeheartedly into the prosecution of people it perceives as "stealing" music. Can of the panel place their hands on their hearts and insist, honestly, that they never taped a song off the radio, or from a mate, in their youths?
Simon Hayes Budgen, Milton Keynes, UK
Answer 8: Steve Knott: I'm sure many, if not all, of us have taped a song from the radio or burnt a CD. But that's fine - and it's not an issue when people make small numbers of copies for their own use. It's those people who abuse the process by engaging in serial downloading and particularly 'uploading', where they are giving away thousands of tracks that are not theirs to give, that are effectively cheating on everybody else, including other music fans, who possibly have to pay more for their legally acquired music as a result.