Today’s announcement by the 6 main UK ISP’s shows illegal file sharing is still an ongoing issue and that they’ve accepted some responsibility for dealing with illegal file sharers. How successful this will be is another question as the creative community has normally managed to stay ahead of legislation.
However, what’s always been at the heart of the matter is economics.
Illegal file sharing has been an ongoing issue for almost a decade and the music industry has been on the sharp end of the Internet’s ability to force change ever since Napster hit the headlines. Originally many consumers and even industry analysts were unsympathetic arguing that change was long overdue and that both consumers and artists were getting a raw deal. Now that that the music industry is transforming, albeit under extreme duress, it seems they may also be converging on a new business model.
Most people accept that it’s only fair that artists and the music industry make some money, which logically leads to the view that we need some way of gaining revenue for them. It looks to us like they’re going to settle on a subscription-based approach.
Mobile phone companies want to join in the act too, unwilling to let Apple’s innovative new technology and their itunes store dominate the market.
It’s an exciting time in the flux that is content provision and we can’t wait to see what emerges. Sony BMG have teamed up with Nokia, Sky and Universal are also making news with their recently announced new digital music service. Even the likes of ilike have teamed up with Rhapsody to offer a full streaming service for its 20 million users on Facebook and Last.fm is beta testing their new service. What they all have in common is that they’re powered by subscription-based models.
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