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Aussie file-sharers provide slightly rubbish excuses for piracy
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 10 May 2010
Aussie file-sharers say they access music from illegal file-sharing networks rather than legit download stores because they want access to digital-rights-management-free MP3s and because file-sharing is more convenient. Which, as excuses go, are pretty poor.
While it’s true that iTunes, although now DRM free, sells AAC files rather than MP3s, and while the MP3 download market is not as well established down under as it is here in the UK, it is possible to buy DRM-free MP3s from legit download stores in Australia, such as the 7Digital-powered and EMI-backed Musichead MP3. And, in the main, legit download stores are much more user-friendly these days than most file-sharing services.
As excuses go, they would have worked in 2004. It seems more likely that Aussie music fans aren’t impressed with the current going rate for a single track download.
The News.com.au and CoreData survey of 5700 Australian file-sharers, all of whom had illegally downloaded music in the last year, and 70% of which said they did so on a regular basis, reports that 43% were using the DRM argument to justify their illegal downloading, while 37% said file-sharing was just more convenient.
When asked about the pricing of legit download stores, 66% said they would be willing to pay if legit download stores slashed their prices. iTunes tracks in Australia currently retail from AUS$1.19 to AUS$2.19, or 72p to £1.33 (so pretty much as in the UK allowing for slight currency fluctuations). According to the survey, 3% said they would actually consider buying at the current rates (though it wasn’t clear why they weren’t), 15% said they’d pay up to one Aussie dollar a track (so 60p), while 49% said they thought 50 cents (30p) would be a fair price.
While you have to be slightly suspicious when those who access most of their music for free from illegal sources say “oh well, if you reduced your prices I’d pay” – there’s a real chance they wouldn’t – there are some in the music industry who believe that if you slashed download unit prices to around 10p a track legit sales would boom, meaning more revenues would be generated overall. Though doing so would, of course, be a risky move.
