Everyday you read the paper; you will find something on downloading, piracy, digital property rights and the like. The music industry is confronted with a problem and they do not know how to fight it. Piracy is finally affecting the labels’ bottom lines and something must be done. Let’s look at some figures.

World sales of recorded music fell by 10.9% in value and by 10.7% in units in the first half of 2003. The value of the pirate market was estimated at $US 4.6 billion in 2002. This means that nearly 14% of the CDs sold in the world are pirated. The person who downloads several mp3s for his own personal use does not launch a mass-scale piracy operation. Each day, walking through New York, you can see hundreds of pirated CD’s and DVD’s lying on the street for sale. In Thailand, there are department stores that are stocked from top to bottom with 100% pirated material.

And Downloaders are killing music. Why can't the labels press foreign governments to crack down on these rogues? Until the international crime syndicates are shut down, it will be impossible to say that downloading is killing music. The proof lies in internet access alone. Less than 1 Billion peopole have internet access. Assuming all of them had CD burners, portable mp3 players and high speed connections (which we all know that not all internet users have) then we might have a case. It is a fact that more people around the world buy music than have internet access. It is much easier, however to sue a college student than it is to stop rogues with pirated music products.

Piracy is a problem to the labels because they lose money. After producing a record, marketing it, placing ads, paying the producers, engineers, mixers, ad execs, marketing execs, stores which sell the album, the price is quite inflated from the miniscule price it costs to manufacture a CD. The labels need to protect their investment. The problem with this model is the costs associated with the album means significant sales are needed to support the industry. Only a handful of albums are successful enough to recoup the losses taken on most of the other albums released that year. The artists are screwed as well, because there is almost no money left for them after everyone gets their pound of flesh.

So what does this have to do with metal?

Metal piracy exists mainly in the form of downloaded material, in the US at least. Major pirating operations do not seem to be too interested in making copies of sub genre music but we must beware. Metal labels seem to want to get bands out there and worry about profits later. This is an admirable goal but only works when we purchase albums. The best way to show your appreciation for a band is to buy their album.

Downloading is a great way to preview albums though. If you download the album, listen to it and hate it, is it really any different from going to a record shop and listening to it there? I also see no problem downloading something IF you are going to buy it. If you were one of the people encouraging downloads of “Enemies of Reality,” I certainly hope you purchased it.

Some suggestions for curbing piracy have been mentioned. The one I like best is inserts in the songs. When some labels release press copies, they put voiceovers in the middle of the songs. While it is annoying when you are trying to get a review done, it prevents piracy because no one is going to listen to it. Incomplete promos also are a deterrent but they lead to incomplete album reviews so it’s a double-edged sword. The best idea I’ve heard are digitally signed mp3s. This would enable labels and bands to isolate the CD that the mp3s were ripped from and punish that person directly. Suing 12-year-old girls does nothing but build up the image of the record labels and the RIAA as behemoths that are unconcerned with the public except as a source of cash.

People keep telling me that downloading is killing music. They’re wrong. Music and the industry is killing music. All commercial music on the radio is trash. It all is the same derivative, manufactured bullshit mainly consisting of monosyllabic hooting and hollering. It sounds like the primal base screams of the jungle. I find it asinine that this is considered music let alone “good” and “popular” music. My faith in humanity is shattered when I think of the millions of people sitting at home blindly accepting this nonsense. No one ever thinks, “Wow, I could do better than this?” It’s quite obvious that people want digital music. It’s convenient, cheap and easily portable. The labels need to embrace the internet as a marketing and sales tool. They could even raise their profits by cutting out the intermediary in terms of delivery costs.

Please help the bands by buying their albums. Help the labels by giving them money to develop other artists for your enjoyment. Download within reason. If you like the new Nevermore album you downloaded, go and BUY IT!