News

Look out Digital Downloader… Big Brother's watching!

• 14th May 2010

Digital downloads; both legal and illegal seem to have dominated the headlines in the latter part of the 00’s. This format has witnessed a meteoric rise over the past few years up until present day, where the BPI have released new figures stating that ‘more than one in 10 people between the ages of 12 and 74 made at least one digital music purchase last year’… meaning the legal download has officially broken the 10% barrier.

However, the positive focus of the growth of this medium has been overshadowed somewhat by the ‘Digital Economy act 2010’. This new act was passed on April 12th, 2010 and will officially go into effect on June 12th, so what does this mean for us, the consumers?

As a shameless consumer of all things musical, I can honestly say that this new fear mongering tactic has somewhat ruffled my feathers! When this bill comes into play on the 12th of June, I could face having my internet connection suspended as a direct result of downloading my music of choice, which is more than a little frustrating for me, but will this inspire us to turn to regularly downloading legal content, or will it turn us off downloading completely?

Figures have shown an increase in the live music sector over the past few years, and some have attributed this to the rise of the illegal download. As more people have freely listened to the artist of their choice, more people have opted to dig deep and buy that all important concert ticket! … So if we stop downloading, will we stop going to the shows? (At least there’ll be a shorter queue for the bar!)

It’s easy to form an opinion on this, and there are a fair few floating around. But ultimately, whose responsibility is this really?

I propose it’s the responsibility of the Record Industry, not the internet service providers (ISP’s) or the government to solve the problem. And rather than solve the negative problem of people stealing the content with another negative (cutting off our connections) why hasn’t the record industry stepped up as a whole and made the content it wants us to buy richer? Many of us can recall the days of the Cassette/CD single with the fold out posters or the access code to the online content… maybe it’s time for the record industry to stop hiding behind the ISP’s and start making us WANT to spend our hard earned ‘credit crunched’ cash on their content?…some already are, so why aren’t they all?

What’s your opinion on this?