People's choice

Electronics Times, May 8, 2000

Keri Allan reports on music industry uproar over the downloading of music for free

The battle for digital music supremacy is getting tougher. Record industry executives are trembling in their boots as consumers take control. Overnight, the people's choice of music format, MP3, has risen from being an obscure German compression technique to the music industry's current chart-topping controversy.

Although there are other formats available, it seems that nothing else has come close to the popularity of MPEG1 audio layer 3, to give its full title. This stems from the way that the compressed nature of the format makes it possible to download music from the Internet reasonably quickly and without much effort. This means no trekking down to the music shop and queuing for ages to pay for one CD: you can download the tune you want in a matter of minutes.

Many people only download songs to play on their PC. But it is the rising use of portable MP3 players which is adding to the music industry's fear. People are downloading an album's worth of music on to a player, at a quality not much below that of a CD, so its popularity is reaching beyond those computer fanatics who mail each other new songs.

People are now taking sides over the issue of digital music distribution. On the one side are those who think music should be free and available on the Web, such as rap star Chuck D, who has been making available free downloads of his music on his website Rapstation.com. Others believe that record companies and artists are losing out due to what they see as illegal distribution. Lawsuits and confusion are rife.

An entire industry is growing around the search for MP3 sites, and the popularity of downloading them is amazing. MP3.com was one of the first sites to be set up for sharing music over the Net. It was created to break new artists, with no copyright infringement involved.

MP3.com has now set up a new area, My MP3, where you register the CDs you own, and instead of having to transfer all your CDs into this format, you can download MP3 versions of the music on the CDs you already own straight off the site, hassle-free. But there are loopholes whereby people can download songs they do not own, and MP3.com is being sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for trafficking in piracy.

The same is happening to Napster.com the creation of a 19-year-old US freshman, a site which has a growing number of enemies. This site works on the premise that you can get free and total access to the music collection of everyone who has registered to the site. You type in the tunes you are looking for and, hey presto, the site lists the songs available for you to download and where you can get them from.

Although Napster may not be doing anything illegal itself by only pointing to areas where you can download songs without an artist's permission, it is worrying people to the extent that many universities are banning students from using the site. Stars such as Sean `Puff Daddy' Combs, Chris Robinson, lead singer of the Black Crowes, and members of rock band Metallica feel that Napster `abuses' artists, and many are rallying together to sue.

So the industry now has to find ways to protect itself and find a way to succeed in an environment which is turning digital. First, there is the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) which aims to establish a secure rights-protected framework for the distribution of digital music. An intriguing point is that the chairman of SDMI is also the chairman of MPEG, the organisation that passes technology to MPEG standard. The group includes more than 120 companies and organisations representing businesses of all types, and wants to find a medium where all sides can be happy. Its work is based on core principles such as the protection of copyrights and that those who wish to do so should be able to use unprotected formats. It believes this will work for consumers, artists, manufacturers and content providers but only time will tell. Other ideas are appearing but nothing seems strong enough to go against the power of MP3 and win.

Many high street shops are considering opening kiosks where consumers can create their own CDs by choosing a selection of songs and having them burned on to a CD. This is one of the first ideas which does not infringe on copyright, as companies and artists receive the royalties owed to them. Top Shop in London's Oxford Circus is one of the first places to try this out but at #14/CD it is not cheap and most customers see it as a novelty rather than a step towards the future of music.

Jane Sheperdson, Top Man and Top Shops brand director, said: "It's a bit of a laugh, people choosing tracks together. We're going to have ready-made selections as well. You know, like McDonalds Happy Meals: `I'll have CD number three'."

It seems the only real solution will come when record companies stop fighting against digital music and embrace it. By creating a happy medium where consumers can download music quickly and at a reasonable price, fewer people will go to the rogue MP3 sites. Sony has plans to offer a selection of digital downloads from its sites, as well as making them available from retail websites such as Tower Records' towerrecords.com.