Protect and Survey · Oct 12, 10:58 AM

Anti-Piracy helps labels to
reduce illegal file-sharing

“There’s nothing we can do, is there?”

“I run very limited pre-release promo to try and reduce sharing”

“One member of my team spends several hours a week manually combing the internet for illegally shared tracks – really time consuming, tedious work…”

Sound familiar? Most of our clients say that illegal file sharing is still one of their biggest concerns and that the problem seems almost too vast to tackle. In response to our clients’ needs, FATdrop last week launched a brand new Anti Piracy feature.

Anti Piracy is an automated search tool designed specially for the music industry. It searches the web for tracks sent out via FATdrop and alerts labels to where their music has been illegally shared online. Labels can then request to have the files removed.

While developing this new feature, we wanted to get it right and hear what our customers had to say, so we conducted a survey of 67 of our clients (mostly independent labels putting out underground/ independent dance music).

Thanks to all those that took part in the survey. The outcome threw up some interesting results; some predictable, some surprising. Here’s a summary of what we found out:

What are you doing to protect your music online?

86.6% feel that illegal file sharing is seriously damaging their business, but one in six labels is still not doing anything to protect their music. More than half of the labels try to reduce illegal file sharing by using watermarks and/or actively searching and removing files from the web. Searching and removing files requires a member of the team spend time searching the net manually, which can be very time consuming and therefore costly. 15% have outsourced this process and are subscribed to a scanning service.

Labels that are aware of the problem but do not have capacities to fight piracy reacted by sending pre-release promos only to small and trusted groups of tastemakers close to release dates to reduce illegal sharing.

Is easier access to music through free, legal services helping to reduce illegal file sharing of your releases?

Labels are mostly sceptical about free, legal services like Spotify or We7 being beneficial for them. Only 14.9% felt that easier access to music through these services is helping to reduce illegal file sharing of their releases. 23.9% think it isn’t, and 61.2% are undecided. Moreover, some labels doubt that they’ll see any income from these organisations.

Do you think digital sales and other forms of revenues (like subscription fees, revenues through advertisement…) will eventually fill the gap that the decrease in physical/CD sales has created?

A lean majority of 45.5% considers it impossible that digital sales etc. can make up for the loss of physical sales. 33.3% think that the gap can be filled by other forms of revenues and 13.6% are undecided.

Some labels also believe that many consumers now have a feeling that they are entitled to free music, either because they have been buying records and CDs for so long or because younger consumers are used to free (illegal) tracks. It may also be that it is so easy to share music that the impact of the act is not fully felt by those engaging in it.

Many labels feel it’s almost impossible to get people paying for music again, however, they also admit that internet technologies and concepts passed them by, and should be integrated and exploited more in the future. Similarly, some participants recognised that the economic shift has also had an effect. People are not spending as much money on music, or in general, and this is considered another reason for decreased sales.

What do you think are the most effective methods to reduce illegal file sharing?

Interestingly, consumer education and provision of better, legal and consumer-friendly services are considered as the two most effective methods to reduce illegal file sharing. Legal actions against consumers and restrictive technologies are considered the least effective.

This view contrasts starkly with that of the major labels, many of whom support the proposal to ‘ban’ persistent offenders from using the internet. Conversely, the labels we spoke to tend to be more understanding of the individuals who share files, for both convenience and simply their love of music.

Attempting to cut off individuals’ internet connection is fraught with problems, and is clearly not the solution that smaller labels are looking for. Whilst many are frustrated with the problem of illegal file sharing, it’s clear there’s no room for defeatism or pessimism. Technology is the source of the challenge, and it is here that dynamic answers can be found.

FATdrop’s Anti-Piracy feature provides a tool to help labels overcome some of the problems of piracy, and will save hours of time for those poor souls set the task of trawling the internet manually looking for shared files. It also means that labels can be less cautious when running pre-release promos, safe in the knowledge that they’ll know at an early stage if their music is leaked to give them the best chance of doing something about it. We’re all excited about this new feature and think it’s a good step in the right direction to make digital better.

As always, we welcome your comments.

— Birte

Comments

1. You make the assumption that sharing of music hurts an artist. While it may impact on sales for established artists, research from Germany shows that some copyright holders can earn up to 150 times more profit when their music is shared for free online.

   — Bob Gee · Oct 14, 10:22 AM · #

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2. There is something to be said for embracing the downloading culture and releasing music for free to try and boost your popularity, but I think that this is beneficial in a very small number of cases. Any long-established label releasing vinyl will tell you that since the boom of downloading mp3 and digital DJing, their sales have plumetted. Even well respected labels now struggle to make as much money from releases as they do for touring and other revenue streams.

   — Gusbo · Oct 14, 12:22 PM · #

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3. I have labels all of the time reducing promo timescales, and DJ mailing lists, insistent that this will reduce the piracy of their material. Its complete tosh. I have had only the one serious leak in the past 4 years, and that was traced and dealt with. 99% of file sharing begins the the day the release is put up for sale on the digital sites. The labels are losing site of the fact that to successfully promote your music you need people playing your records. If you have a trusted list of contacts you will be fine. As far as i can see our industry is in danger of swallowing itself up. The music is already well on the way to becoming worthless, and something certainly needs to be done, but our biggest problem is governing the sharing when the music becomes commercially available. if u run a strong, studied promo campaign then your piracy risks are seriously reduced.

   — Exclusive · Nov 26, 10:45 PM · #

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