Pirates are stealing 19 out of 20 music downloads, according to current research.
There are a number of negative consequences, both for artists and companies, large and small - amongst these that global sales of debut albums have fallen by over 75% since 2003. So it’s not just Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga and EMI and Warner who are suffering.
Of course, there have been similar situations in the past. For example, when public libraries grew in popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the publishing industry had to come up with a radical new way of protecting revenues and remunerating authors, resulting in the adoption of the Public Lending Right programme after the second world war.
The music industry needs to stop whinging about the current situation - and get down to inventing and implementing a new solution which fits with the world as it is now. Bleating won’t solve the problem.
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