Why Piracy is Perpetuating Plastic Pop? - Issues Raised

Why Piracy is Perpetuating Plastic Pop? - Issues Raised

The main point raised by this article is the high use of piracy in modern times, using views and quotes from singers themselves, including Noel Gallagher, Massive Attack and Billy Corgan. 

 The article raises the issue that as people can now download songs on the Internet, it is incredibly hard for the artists to make as much money as they did before the high use of downloads. The article outlines that in some cases it could be the artists whole profit gone, and as Massive Attack claims it will, as a result of this "cheapen music eventually.... Force[ing] the business to take more drastic action". Because of this it could in turn "compromise the bands and the listeners out there".
Gallagher (to the left) explained that as a result of this tours are becoming longer to attempt to make the same amount of money they would have made from song sales alone before the high piracy rate.
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins (to the right) described that commerce starts at the point where people are happy with paying for something - and the fact that technology now allows people to choose to not pay for music has turned music culture into a service culture. This has now led to musicians spending, in Noel Gallaghers case as he is an independent artist "a quarter of a million pounds" of his own money and then because of the high level of piracy, having to as Billy Corgan put it "beg for attention" which correctly as he explains it, is "counterintuitive". Corgan believes that it has got to such a stage that "Even if we could find the right price point the general person doesn't believe in making that purchase".
When it comes to applying the information from this article to my product next year, it is clear that we need to address the piracy issue as effectively as possible. To do this there are a number of options available. One that I think could have a massive impact is the 'Pay What You Want' idea. This is where an artist releases an album or a song and allows the listeners to effectively pay what they think the album/track deserves and download it from the official website or another online song shop. This is likely to reduce piracy as if the listeners like the song they are more likely to respect the artists and want to contribute money to the artist and song. It could be that listeners would rather decide what they pay than pay the set price by online shops. This idea worked well for the band 'Radiohead' in 2007 when they released their album 'In Rainbows' on the 'Pay What You Want' scheme. The video below outlines the facts and figures as a result of their decision. As the video explains the digital publishing income from In Rainbows was bigger than all previous Radiohead digital income, and Radiohead made more money off the album before its CD release alone than they made in total from 2003's Hail to the Thief. Between physical CDs, the expanded box sets and digital downloads, In Rainbows has sold approximately 3 million copies in the US and UK. It sold 30,000 copies its first week on iTunes in the U.S. as well. Roughly 1.75 million physical CDs have been sold, with 100,000 copies of the limited edition box set sold through the band's own merchandising.  


After the success Radiohead experienced with their album, other artists have begun to do the same, for example Wheatus have made every album they release on a 'Pay What You Want' scheme. Because of the success of this idea, the products created next year should be considered to be on a 'Pay What You Want' scheme.
Another idea to prevent piracy of my products is to give the listeners a special deal/offer that results in the listener wanting to buy the song/album as part of the deal as an incentive. This could be some limited edition merchandise, for example a signed photo, T-shirt or vinyl. This would increase the likelihood of the listeners wanting to buy the album/single if they got an incentive to buy it instead of download it illegally. This is a common method with many bands, for example Panic! At The Disco are promoting the release of their new album by allowing fans to pre-order it on the website in one of 4 packages, the cheapest being the CD/Vinyl with a key chain that associates with the theme of the new album and the new single. As seen below fans are unable to only pre-order the CD and instead have a variety of add-on options with the most expensive package coming with a signed screen print for the first 1000 buyers. This could be an effective idea for increasing album and merchandise sales at the same time. There are many ways to reduce the risk of piracy but I think the most important and effective ones are outlined above.