Pirates are industry's biggest customers

[thormagni]

Found this interesting:
Pirates buy tons more music than average folks

(A)ccording to a new study by the BI Norwegian School of Management. Researchers examined the music downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user.

All of the usual caveats apply about "copyright owners get to decide how their IP is distributed not pirates" and "piracy is illegal, immoral, etc." and "if we wanted pirates help distributing content, we would ask for it"

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, they have to get all that music they pirate somewhere.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Well, they have to get all that music they pirate somewhere.

They seem to indicate the people downloading the files are the pirates surveyed, not necessarily the people that put up the files in the first place.

They refered to downloading habits, not uploading habits

The number of people that download and pass along greatly outnumbers the ones that put the files up initially. The motivation of the uploader (not just the 'reseeder') is probably different than that of the downloader. Just as the person buying the TV out of the back of the van has different reasons than the person selling the TV out of the back of the van.

 

[portermj]

I'd have liked to see the article go into detail on who the comparision group was. It isn't clear if the group included people with no interest in music at all, let alone downloading it. I'm in my thirties and I have a lot of friend that regularly use the internet and who haven't been interested in any new music since 1994.

Of course a fan of a new band is more likely to pay for that bands music, regardless of whether they illegally download or not, than people who have not interest in the band at all.

A better study would control for only people that paid for a minimum number of downloads or CD sales.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

This is basic psychology at work. This is precisely like the people who go to a bookstore and read a book, even from cover to cover, then either buy it (they liked it), or don't (they didn't like it).

It was not long ago, at all, that big chain bookstores and little stores alike dissuaded their customers from reading in-store, and treating the place like a library. Not so long ago, I saw many a customer harassed for reading for "too long" in a store, and asked to leave. Now? The big box stores put in seats and tables and let their customers read at their own leisurely pace. And it has increased sales, not driven customers (and thus sales) away.

WotC may not LIKE the idea of pirated material, any more than the RIAA/MPAA does. That does not, however, change the psychology at work here, nor does it change the increase in sales that pirated material creates.

People like to "try before they buy". People also like to see new material come out from companies that create material they enjoy. People are not stupid (on the whole) in this regard, and are definitely willing to pay for a hard copy, or a legit PDF, if they enjoyed the pirated copy, or they enjoyed what they read for free at the bookstore, saw at a friends house, listened to a burned copy of music, et al. After all, that is how you let the company know you appreciate their product: by paying them to create more product of the same quality or higher.

To me, this move, and a move towards some sort of proprietary format of distributing digital products, would be like a record label back in the day refusing to release ANYTHING on cassette, because cassettes are too easy to copy, and instead releasing them on special tapes that can only be read on a player they (or a partner company) create. Unfortunately for any such silly record label, anyone could (and would've) simply bought one of those proprietary players (or bought the label's LPs), linked it to a cassette recorder of some sort, recorded it, and still had a cassette copy they could then distribute for free to friends and family.

 

[Lwaxy]

I don't buy much music anymore. why? Because nowadays I can't just randomly dl songs to check if i like the band. I used to do that a lot, spent a day dling a dozen songs from groups I had never heard of and then went to the store to buy what I liked. Since the anti-pirating silliness has come up I bought a whole of 14 CDs (and all of those soundtracks), as compared to twice that amount in half a year. As the radio stations only play mainstream and I do not like to check out music in stores (I can't relax there) this means the industry lost a good customer. Same for basically all the people I meet in daily life.

I did the same reading check for RPG stuff. Admittedly, back then the scans were bad and if you really wanted to enjoy something, you had to buy it anyway. But evn with the better quality, I would have to print out a PDF to really enjoy it, which means spending time, paper, and ink and a binder. Can't take the comp to the bathroom or sit down with it in my fav recliner. I prefer the real book by far.

So I think all this cry wolf (or cry pirate) about illegal copies is the biggest nonsense in our time. Whoiever doesn't have the money to buy the stuff wouldn't have bought it anyway, and the real fans of something will by it no matter what. Those few who pirate anything even being rich are just some disturbed folks in my eyes, who might not even use the stuff they dl.

Sometimes I wonder if all of Wizard's boohoo about piracy isn't just a way to promote their stuff.

 

[Kishin]

These same persons are also the people are also on average attending more concerts per year, and thereby funneling money toward the venture on which the artist themselves makes the most profit. (Tickets and merch).

 

[I'm A Banana]

Not a shocker to me, but I'm pretty savvy on the news for this. Book experiments work that way, too -- free electronic copies drive up sales of books.

I mean the whole "Industry is completely insane" line is old hat by now. It's more about how we stop them from being insane (with things like C-61 in Canada and the Three Strikes idea, and WIPO, and DRM, and Rootkit, and.....), to protect ourselves and our computers.

 

[hexgrid]

I don't buy much music anymore. why? Because nowadays I can't just randomly dl songs to check if i like the band. I used to do that a lot, spent a day dling a dozen songs from groups I had never heard of and then went to the store to buy what I liked. Since the anti-pirating silliness has come up I bought a whole of 14 CDs (and all of those soundtracks), as compared to twice that amount in half a year.

Why don't you just listen to samples on itunes or amazon, or watch videos on youtube? I find new music I like this way all the time. It works better than randomly downloading, because you can keep clicking on an ever-expanding web of related material.

 

[Lwaxy]

You tube slows my programs down terribly and stops me from having as many things open as I want. It is especially incompatible with CC3. I can't just dl it and then let it play, at least not without a recording program which takes lots of time (tried that) I need to click through it to search for stuff. And then, the things I want aren't often on you tube. Like African/Arabian music, special types of reggae and rap and several German underground styles. I do check You tube at times, but more for funny videos or actual hits I do not need to listen to too much.

Amazon and itunes are very limited compared to what I am looking for. Plus, last time I checked, they only play a few seconds of each song as a sample, which makes it impossible for me to know if I'd like it.

I suppose if I had more time at hands I could click through you tube for hours but I just don't. I have a few playlists there, but that is mostly stuff I want to see the videos every now and then.