Sony, Universal Hope To Beat Piracy With 'Instant Pop'

Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that Britain's two biggest record labels, Sony and Universal, plan to beat music piracy by making new singles available for sale on the day they first hit the airwaves hoping the effort will encourage young people to buy songs they can listen to immediately rather than copying from radio broadcasts online. Songs used to receive up to six weeks radio airplay before they were released for sale, a practice known as 'setting up' a record. 'What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of — or had already pirated — new singles,' says David Joseph. Sony, which will start the 'on air, on sale' policy simultaneously with Universal next month, agreed that the old approach was no longer relevant in an age where, according to a spokesman for the music major, 'people want instant gratification.'"

Comments

Re:You see? They *are* changing their business mod

[poetmatt]

I don't see a compelling reason to buy music for any artist that you only like but - but don't feel you like enough to support, honestly. Otherwise you're wasting money on "Eh they're okay" bands or "they're pretty good bands".

Artists that connect with fans get my full support, cds, concerts, etc, but the rest? f em. You think (insert platinum artist here) is going to give a crap about their fans? no. They're all about $$, which isn't all about music.

Re:You see? They *are* changing their business mod

[PopeRatzo]

f em

As a professional musician, I completely endorse and salute this approach.

Re:You see? They *are* changing their business mod

[mcgrew]

You've swallowed the lie that piracy costs sales, when studies show the exact opposite.

Kindof how the Partnership for a Drug Free America keeps the lie alive that pot causes cancer, when studies show that it actually decreases the incidence of cancer, especially among cigarette smokers.

Nobody ever went broke from piracy, but many artists have gone broke from obscurity. The reason the RIAA doesn't want P2P is because they have radio and don't need it, while their competetion, the indie bands, NEED P2P.

It isn't pirates they're afraid of, it's competetion. The record labels are made of liars and thieves, and nobody should EVER take anything anybody in the industry says at face value.