In June 2009 with the passing of the HADOPI law, France became the first country to use legislation to tackle the issue of piracy in music downloads. The UK Digital Economy Bill, which passed somewhat controversially through Parliament earlier this year and includes provisions for banning illegal file-sharers and blocking websites that infringe copyright laws, is similarly designed to tackle internet piracy through the use of legislation. But how successful is legislation of this nature in reducing music piracy, and more importantly, to what extent does it encourage legal consumption? There seems little evidence so far that they are doing either.

The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has revealed its analysis of global music consumption in 2010, highlighting an overall drop in physical CD sales of -14.2%, with an increase of only 5.3% in (legal) digital sales during the same period leaving a significant shortfall in revenue for the industry.

Common opinion generally decrees that, in the future, the majority of consumers will be moving to the cloud to obtain broader access to music. While this is almost certainly true, in the fragmented world of consumer music consumption, a ‘collector’ mentality and desire for personal ownership continue to exist amongst many music fans. The music industry needs to ensure these different needs are addressed, rather than assuming a single model will satisfy all consumers.

Vinyl records not affected by the industry downturn?

Over the last few years a pleasing story has continued to appear like clockwork in the press. Amid general doom and gloom and tales of music industry collapse, we are told, somewhat counter-intuitively, that sales of vinyl records are continuing to increase. See the chronologically listed selection of articles below for proof.[1]

 

Declining consumer spend on physical music has forced the demise of many traditional bricks and mortar record stores. For the music industry, question marks remain about how, and even whether, the revenue generated by digital music can offset this loss. Rather than fighting this, the music industry first needs to ensure that the remaining retail consumers don’t drop out of its customer base altogether.

High street closures

The first album I bought was Happy Nation by Ace of Base. Yeah, I know. The format I bought it on – cassette – hasn’t aged any better than their distinctive (and, some would argue, inimitable…) brand of Swedish pop-reggae. And now, it looks like the record shop I purchased it from might be taking a similar slide into the field of “ha, remember them?” obscurity.

Exciting times lie ahead within the gaming industry and the buying options for new and used games have never been so wide. New game downloads are increasing at great speed and the used game market is strengthening, with Tesco, Asda and Argos all now offering a used game service. All this is great news for ‘gamers’ but the real opportunity is a platform which combines the two: trading online.

Electronic Arts CEO, John Riccitiello, recently claimed that 2011 will be the year revenues from downloadable games overtake the traditional out-of-box experience[i]. Being an avid gamer myself, a statement like this took me by surprise, especially coming from such a senior figure in the gaming industry. I have little doubt that this scenario will eventually happen, but this year?. There are two big reasons for my scepticism. First, the cost of new games – mixed with the widespread availability of cheap second hand games – and, second, limited storage space on consoles when used more widely in the ‘connected home’ rather than just for gaming.

Despite the continuing efforts of manufacturers, it seems that we the consumer are still not recycling our old mobile phones.  Research by GfK NOP way back in 2007 first highlighted the problem of consumer lethargy but since then recent reports suggest there has been little improvement since.

An article by Telephony online for example, bemoans that:

“when a mobile phone reaches its end of life or, more likely, a consumer opts to upgrade, the three most common places for it to end up are a landfill, an incinerator or the consumer’s desk drawer.  Nokia’s own studies find that only about 3% of consumers are recycling their handsets today …there could be as many as one billion sitting in desks, consumers  aren’t spending the time or effort to seek out a recycling program.”