An Industry Response To Our Piracy Article

Yesterday theMusic.com.au's Mitch Knox wrote an opinion piece about piracy in the film and subscription TV worlds. It caused a lot of discussion, as it should, amongst the industry and punters. Today Music Rights Australia's General Manager Vanessa Hutley responds to that article, writing that those examples won't fly when it comes to music.

THE INCONVENIENT EXAMPLE – MUSIC

As always the myths of why people choose unlicensed online sites to get creative content rather than licensed sources featured prominently in yesterday's article by Mitch Knox.

It was not without irony that Mr Knox wrote in an entrainment publication, which has a strong focus on music, using only film and subscription TV examples to perpetuate the myths and yet he ignored those pesky inconvenient music examples which were not going to help his argument at all.

If I may I would like to talk about music.

By way of summary here are the myths put forward by Mr Knox

#1 – No one would ever get unlicensed creative content from these unauthorised sites if industry gave them access to licensed content where, when and how they wanted it.

#2 – It only happens because of price.

#3 – Piracy exists because of price and access problems perpetuated by old business models. So don't make any changes to the law to help creators in any way as it is really all their fault… see above.

Myths one, two and three are really just variations on a theme.

Music has solved access and price issues and if Mr Knox's argument holds then there should be no music piracy in Australia. Sadly that is not the case.

Additionally, none of these myths speak to the issues of a musician's right to choose how they should be rewarded for their work or a musician's capacity to take effective steps to stop those who would seek to exploit their work without rewarding them.

Truth: Access and price are not the cure-all – artists need the tools to have their work respected and protected online

There are over 30 licensed online music services in Australia. These services offer every possible genre of music to fans across a variety of platforms and devices at a range of price points, including free with ads. Worldwide there are over 500 licensed music services. Yet according to the IFPI Digital Music Report  2014 approximately 26 per cent of internet users worldwide regularly access unlicensed services.

Licensed music is available where, when and how fans wish to experience it yet every day sites like The Pirate Bay and Kick Ass Torrents operate illegally by offering music they have not paid for. Those sites generate money for the operators from the ads which appear on them. That money is significant. A recent study titled Good Money Gone Bad: Digital Thieves and the Hijacking of the Online Ad Business by the Digital Citizens Alliance, found that the top 30 sites in the US which stream illegal content or downloaded illegal content made on average US$4.4 million each per year and in total the top 30 illegal sites made US$227 million.

Not one cent of the revenue generated by those sites goes to the musicians or those who invest in them.

Neither access nor price fixed this problem for the music industry. There is a need to look at ways to give artists and those who invest in them the tools to stop this happening.

This is not about silencing the internet. This is not about blocking or stopping creative expression or stopping freedom of speech or breaking the internet. This is about stopping those who seek to exploit the creative output of artists and who fail to pay them a cent. It is about making the internet work for everyone.

The ARIA wholesale figures for 2013 showed that digital sales outstripped physical sales for the first time. Licensed online services are central to the music industry. The ARIA figures also showed a drop of over 11% in sales. That drop was in part brought about by the unchecked and unauthorised use of music online in Australia.

We need to review how creators and those who invest in them can have their choices respected and protected online.

Exactly what the response should be is open for discussion, but the recent announcement by the Attorney General that the situation will be reviewed is a good start and Music Rights Australia supports the call for review in the areas which the Attorney General has identified.

This is not anti-internet. This is about respecting and protecting artists' ability to be rewarded and to have effective tools to stop those who seek to exploit their work online.

This is important to the creative community as a whole and it is a discussion worth having but it is not advanced by perpetuating these tired myths.

Vanessa Hutley
General Manager
Music Rights Australia