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Jupiter Report tells music industry to use MP3s

Posted by Hemos on from the can't-beat-'em-join-'em dept.

iceT writes "Jupiter Communications released a report that recommends that the Music Industry exploit MP3's rather than fight them. They also forcast that online digital sales will rise from 1.1% to 14% by 2003. Now, if the Music Industry will only listen." For those you not in the know, Jupiter is a bigwig research agency, and sponsers events like the annual Plug.In musical forum.

9 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. MP3 by drwiii · · Score: 2
    Whichever stance the music industry takes on the whole MP3 issue, one thing will be for certain: Copying will be possible. Period. They will have to live with that. Honestly, I think that's what scares them the most. That it's possible to essentially rip an entire disc with little or no effort. It's also easy to rip anything that you can pull an audio stream from. Aside from the fact that all the songs they release these days suck, I'd say the music industry has some tough days ahead.

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    1. Re:MP3 by gavinhall · · Score: 2

      Posted by Lothario:

      I don't think the real issue is whether or not the music can be copied with ease or fidelity. That is currently possible, although more difficult than with MP3. There is a ton of money locked up with distribution of recorded music. There are only a few players in the main distribution channel (Sony, BMI, etc.) and they stand to go through massive upheaval if the barriers to entry in the industry are reduced to recording an album on your Macintosh studio in your garage and chucking it out on the Internet. I've found that powerful monopolistic companies tend to get edgy when their market barriers are erased.

    2. Re:MP3 by BeBoxer · · Score: 4

      I think this is pretty on the nose. It's my opinion that the industry is not going to lose a whole lot of money to copying/piracy. They can't stop people from putting stuff on the web, but they can make it hard to find. The fact is that most consumers don't want to go hang out in #mp3warez or somewhere to find the latest pop tune. They will just head over to www.sony.com or wherever to pick up their songs. All the labels need to do is hire a few network savvy lawers to send out cease and desist letters so that the pirate sites have to keep their heads down. As long as pirate sites are hard for the masses to find, the masses will just buy the music on the official site. Just like with software. Last time I checked, the software industry was doing just fine despite the fact that it's trivial to pirate software. Even with sites like www.warez.com, getting pirated software is a pain in the ass. It's pretty much nothing but broken links and overloaded servers. Why should I spend two hours trying to find a working server with whatever new game is out, when I can spend five minutes having it FedEx'd to me? It's just not worth my time. If the software company is savvy and sells downloads of the program, I can have a legit copy even faster.

      However, what is a threat to the music labels are the legitimate sites with MP3s. There is every reason to believe that www.mp3.com or some similar site will start taking market share and mind share away from Sony, BMI, and the others. While the big labels like to think that they are in the music creation business, it is more accurate to say that they are in the manufacturing and distribution business. There are lots and lots of companies and bands capable of making a studio quality recording of decent music. However, there are very few companies with the infrastructure to make millions of physical copies of that music and ship it to thousands of stores all over the world. Now that the Internet allows someone to dispose of the physical aspect of the music and just ship the bits around, the big labels are going to lose the edge that keeps them on top. I would hope that this is what keeps them awake at night, and that the piracy story is just a cover. However, you never know. Upper management may actually be so clueless as to think that they are in the "music" business and not the "manufacturing" business.

  2. Not Really... by Listerine · · Score: 2

    I dont think copying itself scares the biggie companies. That technology has been available for a long time, with casset tapes, and later on CD recordables. What really makes their makes them crap their pants is that I can rip the song, post it on a website, and thousands of people can download it with little effort on either party's part. Before, I had no way to reach so many people as well as no way make several thousand copies of the music easily.

    An ungood alternative you mention is streaming format. This is a disgusting pay-per-view technology that is being twisted to intentions its not designed for. It was created with the idea that you could broadcast radio stations (or cell phone conversations) over the internet without a download, not so that you can run a pay-per-view music site.

    The music industry is most definately not doomed. Mindless hordes will continue to buy whatever Disney etc. pushes in their movies on television shows. Older hordes will be unexplainedly drawn to "pop" music, and keep the money flowing. The only problem they face is that with the introduction of the internet into the horde, people no longer have to buy a 20 dollar CD to see if they even like the music. There will always be people with morals there to actually buy the stuff. The are afraid because they are losing control over their buyers. Now a band can sell directly to audiences. They are not afraid because people can copy the music. That has always been available.

    - Branden
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  3. MP3? Why not? by moitz · · Score: 2

    Seeing as I have nearly 6 gig of MP3s on my work computer alone, why not just sell MP3's via the Internet? People are going to copy music, no matter what media it's on. Half of my CD collection is burned. 90% of my tapes (so I'm dated...so what.) are copied as well.
    The music industry is going to realize this one sooner or later, and learn to deal with it. The sales figures are just that. Sales. Honest people buying music. Some people are going to copy, some are going to buy. It's a fact of life. Why not make a handy audio format available for more honest people, with bands that they like and have heard of?

    --
    Screw 'em...who cares what anyone thinks.
  4. Um, *digital* sales? by Kaz+Kylheku · · Score: 2

    What do you call CD's then? The industry has been selling digital music already for years, just
    not online.

    When you buy a CD, you are getting a bunch of files that you can copy, and the purveyors know that you can copy them.

    I suspect that the music industry has anticipated that hardware would eventually get to the point where it enables people to casually trade music files. They just didn't count on it happening so soon thanks to very effective lossy audio compression.

    There is no fundamental difference between shipping data on polycarbonate or doing it over a network. Either way, the possibility exists that someone will buy one copy and then duplicate it countless times.

    So it's not real news that the industry is getting in on the action, any more than it's newsworthy that some software company is delivering software to a client over a network.

    Everyone wants to get into online sales, and it makes particular sense for software of any kind, because of the reduced manufacturing and distribution costs. The losers in this will probably be the music retail outlets, who will become increasingly obsolete.

  5. Well, maybe the big honchos are listening ... by Stavr0 · · Score: 3
    Story here
    Virgin Entertainment Group launched a new kiosk service Thursday that will allow in-store customers to burn Internet music onto CDs for purchase.

    They seem to have found a way of cashing in the MP3 craze. Provide high-bandwith Net access, let user download on his own, charge for the CD-R.
    - - -

  6. TMBG on MP3 by Industrial+Disease · · Score: 2

    You may have seen the story posted several months ago about the band They Might Be Giants releasing an album in MP3 format only. This release, Long Tall Weekend, will finally be available tonight at EMusic (formerly GoodNoise). Apparently, they've decided to make an event out of it, with a web chat and a live-broadcast concert. TMBG is one of my favorite bands, and I want to support them, but I also want to support the idea that people will pay a reasonable price for good digital music, even if it isn't copy protected.

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  7. Re:A question from a clueless by Izaak · · Score: 2
    I have to admit I am totally clueless about this kind of thing. I don't listen to music and usually stay away from Mpegs. So, I have to ask: is Mpeg and open format?

    You don't listen to music!? Have you no soul!?!?!

    Thad

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