The Swaps Report
Look at the pie chart, don’t read the analysis.
Better yet, click on the link just above the pie chart and download the entire study and start reading, it’s utterly fascinating.
First and foremost because it seems to be written by people who are familiar with what they’re studying. For years, we’ve had analysis done by those who not only don’t steal, but don’t believe in stealing and therefore don’t know how to ask the right questions and end up with skewed answers.
And the more I read the report, the more questions I’ve got.
But:
1. It appears music is a tiny fraction of the files traded on BitTorrent. 2.9%
2. As for lockers, i.e. Megaupload and RapidShare, which many thieves are unfamiliar with, never mind rights holders, music is only 10% of that.
3. Yes, music is more prominent on Gnutella services, but those are so 2001.
So where does this leave us?
It does tell us the action in piracy is in TV and movies. And that those industries are heading towards a wall.
But why do the video downloads overwhelm the music downloads? Could it be that people know how to access said music for free, on YouTube?
Mmm…
It appears that the only way we can compete with free is free.
Furthermore, piracy may be a paper tiger.
Read this article:
The story’s not written so well, but the premise is fascinating, is there more money in music being free?
In other words, should we declare all music free and try to monetize from there, since it’s so readily available that many people are not even bother to steal it anymore?
Maybe music has to be a service, with social and other components, because people just don’t see a reason to buy it anymore, they don’t even see a need to acquire it, because it’s so readily available!
Challenge the preconceptions. Don’t beat me up, I’m just the messenger, I don’t hold any music copyrights.
It appears if something’s not free, it gets no traction.
Used to be it was free on the radio.
Then it was free on TV.
Now it’s free online. And so ubiquitous that there’s no incentive to buy.
With TV and radio exposure fading, you need free exposure to get started. Maybe the money’s in the deluxe packages, or in the convenience where payment is so cheap, it saves you time.
We’ve got to redefine the debate. The public is way ahead of us.
MOG and Rdio and Napster and Rhapsody are all good services. But none of them has made a dent because you have to pay to play.
YouTube is free. Monetization is being figured out along the way. Maybe we need to admit music is free and work from there.
