Illegal music downloading outpacing legal by 20-to-1

The Associated Press last week reported that the record industry is fighting a major losing battle against illegal downloading, which outpaces legal downloading alternatives 20-to-1, causing losses in the billions of dollars. Meanwhile, revenue from digital music sales has not made any inroads toward recovering money lost by the dying CD, rising just 40% to $2.9 billion during 2007 after doubling in 2005 and tripling in 2006. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also told the AP, "CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and were likely to drop further in 2007," and digital revenue "is also showing signs of slowing."

The IFPI also said that "digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 % of the world's music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music." The industry's fight against piracy has received massive support in France, where the government of President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed to have Internet service providers there "automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy." Japan leads digital downloads, both illegal and legal, with sales and piracy mostly working through consumers' phones.

Although this devastating report indicates that the record industry is still in a dire situation, the developments in legal downloading throughout the last few months in 2007 and the first month of 2008 seem to set a more optimistic tone. Whether the disabling of anti-piracy technology from all music labels will allow growth this year, is obviously yet to be seen, but the benefits of the music available now would seem to outpace the availability of media available illegally. The problem of paying for products still remains for those consumers, but the quality of new MP3 tracks is finally at an acceptable level for those that look for the difference.