Too little major online label content, "overly restrictive digital rights" and low broadband penetration are the three main reasons why Europe's online music industry will continue to drag for some time yet, says a new Jupiter Research survey.

Moreover, European consumers will, "remain unconvinced of the need to pay for online music" which will in turn lead to a, "further difficult period for the online music industry with over 18% of Internet users still using illegal file sharing".

It goes on that although 43% of consumers surveyed aren't convinced of the need to pay for a digital music service, access to online music nonetheless drives consumer broadband uptake.

But, "consumers still primarily see this as a route to gaining improved access to illegal file sharing sites, indicating that file sharing will become an increasing problem for BSPs, placing greater strain on their networks," states Jupiter.

Describing 2002 as a year of "missed opportunity as the music industry failed to grant the types of licenses to legitimate online music services that would have empowered them to compete with illegal file sharing," the company says, however, that so far, 2003 has been a year of progress with labels making more of their catalogue available for digital distribution.

More than half the BSPs interviewed said they plan to launch a music service later in the year and, "By the end of 2003, Europe's online music market will have finally started to gain momentum, with BSPs at the center of this development, using music services to drive usage of their broadband products."

The media will forever tell that filesharing killed the music industry, but the truth lies in NOT ADAPTING to technology and other reasons.

I fail to see a single fact in this article that we dont already know Anyway, I really doupt we will see a successful online music business as long as the p2p services operate, and since they are never going away we will logicially never have a successful online music industry

Im demonstrateing my own approach already. Me and a friend ,with two more potential friends, are constructing Scylla. A terabyte hard drive array with distributed download capability, turning all our extensive computer collections into one giant pirateing machine. Im spending £200 on hard drives just to get the first cluster working. See, people will pay for online music

Is there a way to find out which artist's are walking away from the RIAA and which one's aren't?

Where are these "illegal file sharing sites" I keep hearing so much about? I haven't seen or heard of any since I stopped looking at warez sites years ago. Do people really post large catalogs of MP3s on static webpages still?

No but you can pay for small catalogs at Rapsody and Itunes.

no, the problem isn't that people are unwilling to pay, the problem is that the industry is charging too much for an inferior product.

make the songs 5 or 10 for a dollar (US funds), get rid of the nonsense restrictions, and watch the money begin to come in. oh, and try not to piss off your potential customers further than you already have.

but then again, the RIAA is after control, not money. it just wouldn't do to have a successful, widely-accepted online music store. where's the control in that?

it's just sick.. when a lot of people started buying bottled water instead of sodas, what did the coca-cola company do? they came out with their own brand of bottled water and basicly said "we don't care what you choose to drink, we just want you to buy it from us". lo and behold, they are still quite profitable.

the only reason apple's i-tunes thing is working is because apple's customer base generally has more money on hand and less access to filesharing applications, as compared to your typical windows 98 user. i suspect it has very little (if anything) to do with people being scared of the RIAA Police. i've never used it since i don't have a mac, but i understand the catalogue is still rather limited. i predict the windows version of i-tunes will fail quite miserably... but feel free to disagree with me if you wish.

I dont understand the big deal with
i-tunes. How is paying $1 a song a better deal than $15 for a CD. The hell with them. I had no problem paying $5 for a CD from MP3.com. That was a good deal. Thats what needs to happen but the record companies will go chapter 7 before they do that.

at least 2 of my friends own machines with 1.2 terb storage and multiple LAN adapters - to campus network and private connections (between rooms).
they are using it all... for "work" ... yeah ... hehehe

tau, there are sites out there where you can download entire albums, though they're usually newer albums with many from Europe. They're good sites, though and could be used as a way of making music more global. I found a great album from Europe on one that so far I haven't been able to buy here in the US.

Now if the labels would post their all their albums online at a decent price, then maybe I'd consider it. It's just impossible sometimes to find older albums on the p2ps.

When you burn a CD with most of those services, if you put 18 songs on it, its $18. Now that's what you would pay in a lot of stores for an album. $18 is excessive already, even for an album. But now...When you burn a CD..The RIAA doesn't have to pay for it to be shipped, doesn't have to pay for the CD itself, or pay somebody to burn the CD, and they don't have to pay for paper and ink to print the inserts, and they don't have to pay someone TO print the inserts. So tell me, with all of that, how is charging that much for the online services justifiable. I understand that the people who actually MADE the service had to get paid, but I don't think their take of it is THAT much. Even with the Rhapsody service, with MP3's at $.79, a burned 18 song CD is still $14.22, which is still too high, considering all that doesn't have to be done by companies. When the RIAA prices everything fairly, and stops trying to sue the consumer into submission, I'll buy stuff again. Until then, I'll do a true boycott. No downloading, no buying songs from the Internet services, no buying new albums, unless its at a reasonable price.($10.99) Which is rare.

Wait...No new decent albums to buy. What was I thinking?

Great points! Personally, I go to concerts if there is a group I want to support. I'm an old school music fan, so I don't even give a sh!t about these new groups, and as far as Metallica..what a bunch of Looooooosers! Hey Lars, get a job and grow up arsehole!
And Madonna? What a joke this hasbeen is. Notice that the most vocal of the artists are often the ones who are trying to get their ragged claws dug into a career that has passed them by like a stale breeze coming from the backdoor of an abbatoir!

BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS!

You can download from http://www.weblisten.com/en is valid for USA users as well and is legal.

Boycott is a boycott. It's hard once you get started but after a while if you can get past the 6 month mark it's pretty easy. I haven't bought CD since July 1999 nor have I downloaded any music. The RIAA could win me back but it would take them restructuring their contracts so that the artist has a 50/50 split with the label on profits. We all know that will never happen so I go merrily along with my old CD collection.

I', w/ you 1000% stevepjc ! We need more people to see the light!
Peace and Prosperity to all who oppose the tyranny!

BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS!

"illegal file shareing sites" has two potential definitions:

1. The porn-filled world of webwarez.
2. A tabloid term for p2p.

I suspect this usage is the latter.

The RIAA are committing online terror, plain and simple. If KaZaa and the rest declare their services off limits to the RIAA and the copyright bots,
they can invoke USC TITLE 18,Part 1, Chapter 121, Sec. 2701, since the RIAA would be accessing the network of users without permission and this is a violation, to access stored electonic communications without authorization.
There is the assumption in law that only people with "clean hands" should sue. Violation of federal law by them and their minions would dirty their hands!
BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS! BAN THE BASTARDS!