Source Link

# Katie Allen, media business correspondent
# The Guardian,
# Monday April 7 2008

Ex-Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey, now British Music Rights chief, is worried for the musical life of the next generation of 'sexually frustrated 17-year-olds'. Photograph: Brian Rasic/Rex features

More than half of young people copy the songs on their hard drives to friends and even more swap CD copies, according to research that reveals the huge challenge home copying poses to a music industry already battling internet file-sharing.

Three decades after cassette decks first allowed people to make free music tapes for friends, a study by the industry group British Music Rights suggests home copying remains just as ingrained in UK culture.

BMR's chief executive, the singer Feargal Sharkey, said the research underlines the urgent need to adapt to consumers' attitudes or face serious repercussions for the next generation of musicians.

The industry's anti-piracy efforts have largely focused on illegal online music swapping - with estimates suggesting only one in 20 digital downloads is paid for. But the online problem is potentially dwarfed by "offline copying", argues BMR. Its research, carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, for 18-24-year-olds, home copying remains more popular than file sharing. Two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends.

Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying, including taking the music contents of a friend's hard drive - 58% - and the more old-fashioned method of recording from the radio.

BMR, which lobbies on behalf of composers, songwriters and music publishers, claims its research is the first academic study of its kind, and fills a hole in the industry's understanding of how people consume music.

Former Undertones frontman Sharkey said the aim was not to lambast young music consumers but to create business models that fit their behaviour and tap into the unrelenting demand for music. He hopes the findings will provide impetus for change.

"For somebody who has spent 30 years in the music industry, you instinctively know this stuff is going on. But when you actually sit looking at your computer and see a number that says 95% of people are copying music at home, you suddenly go, 'Bloody hell'," he said.

Many record label executives see the piracy problem getting worse before it gets better. The BMR research echoes other studies signalling that knowing something is illegal is no longer a deterrent. Well over half its respondents who know that copying music from a CD to a recordable disc is illegal do so anyway.

But Sharkey believes a combination of education projects and new ways of providing music to consumers - for example, advertising-funded downloads - will change that.

"Ultimately it has to get better ... At some point musicians and songwriters have to make enough money out of it otherwise they stop doing it," he said.

"My concern is for the next generation of sexually frustrated, hormone-ridden 17-year-olds that are sitting in a bedroom about to possibly, and I hope, write something like Teenage Kicks," he said, referring to the Undertones song the late DJ John Peel made his anthem.

The aspect of home copying that most worries BMR is the speed with which friends can now swap music, whether from one hard drive to another or on to MP3 players. Almost half the music in the average MP3 player collection comprises tracks that have not been paid for, the report says. People aged 18-24 keep around £750-worth of unpaid-for music on their MP3 players.

The study was carried out against the backdrop of government deliberations over how to introduce an exception in law so that people can legally copy music they have bought for private use.

Currently, UK consumers are technically breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 by copying tracks from CDs to their PC or digital player, or making an extra copy to play in the car.

The Intellectual Property Office concludes consultations on changing the law tomorrow and BMR is submitting some of its research.

The music industry says it accepts consumers should not be punished for shifting music from one format to another, but some are concerned an exception will increase the perception music can be freely copied with impunity.

BMR has "no problem in principle" with the concept of changing the law. But Sharkey is urging the government to look to European law, which dictates that where a private copying-style exception is created there is also some sort of compensation for the creators and performers.

Whatever the outcome, the prevalence of offline and online music copying shows the music industry has "a lot of big challenges it needs to face up to very quickly", said Sharkey.

Artists, songwriters and composers should worry more if their music was NOT being copied and downloaded.

Artificial scarcity is thankfully dying off due to technological improvements. Adjust or die! Don't force the world to live in the stone age just to protect your dying business model.

Currently, UK consumers are technically breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 by copying tracks from CDs to their PC or digital player, or making an extra copy to play in the car.

Geez, that's even worse than our laws.

" The industry's anti-piracy efforts have largely focused on illegal online music swapping - with estimates suggesting only one in 20 digital downloads is paid for. But the online problem is potentially dwarfed by "offline copying", argues BMR. Its research, carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, for 18-24-year-olds, home copying remains more popular than file sharing. Two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends. "

Is everyone involved in th industry so
fucking slow ?
I know , dumb question.
They know perfectly well, and,
like us here, have known this all
along.
The real reason for shutting down p2p
has nothing to with non-existent losses
from downloads.

" Ultimately it has to get better ... At some point musicians and songwriters have to make enough money out of it otherwise they stop doing it," he said. "

Yup,
The ones doing it for strictly for the
money will quit.

They won't be missed.

"But the online problem is potentially dwarfed by "offline copying", argues BMR. Its research, carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, for 18-24-year-olds, home copying remains more popular than file sharing. "

Here we go again with the same old tired line that the pirates are stealing our stuff. What I don't get is if this "home copying" has been such a huge problem for so many years, how do you explain the years that Music sales exploded?? I mean, your article here mentions cassette taping. This is years beyond cassette taping, and now all of a sudden music sales decline?? Music sales actually increased for years before you sued your customers and Napster out of existence. Could there actually be OTHER REASONS for musics decline, and not "the home pirates are stealing our stuff?"

Of course, we all here know the answer. YES, dumb asses, there are lots of reasons music isn't selling. Crying that home copying is one of the largest is just another excuse to pass more restrictive laws. BMR is full of crap, and are dumber that a bag of wet cement.

"the game is a foot"

Shitty music is the real reason it's not selling. C'mon.. Miley Cyrus anyone? Oh, just stick a fork in me.

Ya know, I know I can't carry a tune, let alone a note to save my hide. I know this, so I'm not about to put out a cd, then cry bloody murder when nobody else can stand my voice either.

"Currently, UK consumers are technically breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 by copying tracks from CDs to their PC or digital player, or making an extra copy to play in the car."

And there was me thinking I had some right to back the music up... Oops!

When CDs first came out I had some friends that worked with us at a data entry place they were CD files , had all the latest Cds and what we did was tape their CDs as we listened all night long I have a very lucrative cassette collection LOL but I did go out and but the CDs when I had the CD player.

My little cousins in the US do this as well and have been for a long time if its good the CDs get copied and passed around/traded etc.

always has been same as it was 25 years ago it is today! Theres less now as the selection of music is NIL! 90% or more isn't worth buying , copying , or stealing for that matter ..

All these people griping about this undoubtedly had double tape recorders, borrowed cassettes from their friends and copied them, too. The technology allowed it. Was that "different"?? I do wish, just for the sake of variety, that they'd come up with a new and novel argument. But then... they fall a little short in the imagination department.

Maybe if the BMR spent more time cutting better deals for those they represent...

BMR has just lost all credability as a reliable source for work, as far as I'm concerned. It's obvious to me that they are nothing more than paid thugs hired by the RIAA. How else could they ignore all the other studies that suggested so many other reasons music sales are down.

Like competition from DVD and Video Games. Like poor music quality. Like suing dead grandma's, disabled moms and 12-year-old girls. Like suing any new technology that is developed, even if that technology could be used for profit. Like our poor economy (yes we are in a RECESSION NOW folks, it isn't in the future. It is HERE). Did I miss any?

"
Date: April 9, 2008 @ 4:35 PM
All these people griping about this undoubtedly had double tape recorders, borrowed cassettes from their friends and copied them, too. The technology allowed it. Was that "different"??"

Somewhat, yes. Each copy you made, wasn't as good as the original. And if your friends copied from your copy, it got progressively worse. Digital copies don't suffer from that problem. The first is the same as the 25th.

It doesn't really have anything to do with it, but for those who care, that is one minor difference between the two.