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Thursday 4 December 2008

Rumours of the death of music are exaggerated

David Crow says the record industry’s attempt to clamp down on illegal downloads is belated and befuddled — but the good news is that live music is thriving again

Back in the late 1990s when the music download revolution was gathering pace, sentimentalists predicted the death of music. Those who spent their youth in rented flats littered with LPs before moving to mortgaged houses furnished with neat racks of CDs felt that free and illegal MP3 files would cannibalise the industry. But the huge irony of this revolution is that it has led to a resurgence in live music. CD sales fell by 10.6 per cent in Britain in 2007 — forcing artists to return to the stage. Last year saw more music festivals than ever before; live music revenues were up 8 per cent on 2006. The list of artists who have sold out the O2 arena in the former Millennium Dome includes Prince, Led Zeppelin and Kylie Minogue. The industry hasn’t looked this healthy for 20 years.

That’s why last week’s news that internet service providers such as Tiscali, BT and Virgin are teaming up with record labels to save Britain’s musical soul was so confused. After years of humming and hawing over what to do about illegal filesharing on so-called peer-to-peer networks, record companies have come up with a solution that is belated and befuddled. Customers suspected of downloading illegal music will receive a stern letter from their broadband provider warning them that they could be cut off. The theory is that these warnings will drive consumers back to record shops and online music stores such as iTunes.

But for the most part, this is sabre-rattling. Broadband providers use the word ‘suspected’ because they can only identify users who are engaged in lots of file-swapping, which is not illegal in itself. To prove that the files are illegal would require a more expensive surveillance operation, and one that would spark a Big Brother debate about internet privacy.

More articles from: David Crow | this section

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