PIRATES AHOY

Sales of pirated CD s worldwide now top more than 500 million units annually, with at least 25 million pirate files available for trading on the Internet. That s according to a recent review of the global illegal music market by the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries).

Despite the perception that the biggest threat to the industry comes via the Internet, physical recordings still account for the vast bulk of the world pirate market. According to IFPI s Music Piracy Report 2000 they comprise an estimated 1.9 billion discs and cassettes with a total value amounting to US $1 billion. However, music piracy online utilising file-sharing sites such as Napster and Gnutella has become a significant and growing threat, as have other new forms including CD-R piracy.
Estimates show that legal music unit sales are outnumbered by illegal ones in no fewer than 19 countries. Eastern Europe and Latin America are the regions that show the highest domestic piracy rates; South East Asia is the region with the highest production capacity feeding the world pirate markets.
Piracy of CD-R s recordable discs produced in mass quantities has also spread alarmingly in the last year. IFPI s first ever estimate on CD-R piracy is that at least 60 million pirate CD-R discs were sold worldwide in 1999.
The Irish Music Industry has not remained immune to the threat from piracy, but according to industry sources here, the picture is not quite as serious as it is in some countries.
Piracy amounts to about 5% of the legitimate market for music sales in Ireland, says Victor Finn, Managing Director of the MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society). This represents a loss of at least #1 million pounds to the industry as well as a loss to the exchequer in terms of VAT revenue.
The run-up to Christmas is traditionally a boom time for pirates cashing in on the demand for CD s and there is evidence of counterfeit albums such as Ronan Keating s debut and the Beatles 1 compilation being sold door to door in Dublin housing estates.
However, Victor Finn insists that the situation in relation to counterfeit CD and cassette sales has been brought under more control in recent years.
It s certainly a big improvement on the situation that existed five years ago, he offers. In conjunction with IRMA we have been active in controlling outlets such as markets in relation to sales of illegal products and the Gardai have been successful in bringing a number of prosecutions. The government are also fully behind us on this issue. The new Copyright Bill which comes into force in January next year will make it a criminal offence for anyone to engage in piracy. Up until now it has been difficult to secure convictions but the new legislation will make this easier.
Not everyone in the record industry in Ireland would agree with Finn s assessment that piracy is being tackled effectively. Steve Murring runs Clubbing Boots, one of Ireland s most active independent dance imprints, who scored a recent top 10 national chart hit with Balloon s Nirvana-sampling Monstersound . He reckons that there is a substantial grey area where piracy is much bigger than official figures would suggest.
I would estimate that for every legitimate sale I make there is one pirated copy out there, he says. When I m selling product to the record stores they re telling me that some DJ s and punters have told them that they ve already downloaded it from Napster or made a copy from a promo version. CD single sales are down even though the music is more popular than ever. There has to be some explanation for this and the only one that makes sense is an increase in piracy.
I ve met more than one club DJ who ve told me they haven t been in a record shop for two years, he adds. Why should I when I can download it from Napster or copy it from my mates, is what they usually say to me.
Murring also points to the use of illegal copies of CD s in jukeboxes in pubs and clubs.
I ve seen it quite a bit myself including one jukebox where over half of the discs were CD-R s rather than original copies, he says. This represents a big loss in sales as well as a loss to the government in VAT receipts.
Dervish s Brian McDonagh who runs the band s own successful Whirling Discs label says they have to be constantly vigilant in the face of the threat from piracy of their material.
We were out in China recently and the level of piracy there is just extraordinary, he says. They have it down to such a fine art that even if a band like ourselves sell a CD at a concert it ll probably be copied and be on sale within a few days for two or three quid. The fact that you re Sting or U2 doesn t make you any less susceptible to piracy.
You don t always get what you pay for, he adds We were told stories that you could buy U2 s new album and you could stick it on and it could be a Chinese banjo player!
Samples of Dervish s music are available on their official website but McDonagh sees this as more of a promotional tool than a source for free music
I ve no real problem with MP3 s as such. The sound isn t as great as CD for a start but I would have a problem with people making copies of our CD s and selling them.
To be fair we haven t seen much of our stuff pirated to date. In one way I d probably be a bit chuffed it means that you ve arrived into the big time. I remember my car was broken into once and there were 200 of our CD s on the back seat and not one of them was taken. I was a bit put out by that!
McDonagh is also less concerned about bootlegging fans recording their concerts for their own use:
Some people get hot around the collar about this issue but as long as it s for personal use I don t mind it that much. I ve got some old live recordings of The Bothy Band which I m sure aren t legitimate, but they re purely for my own use.

Internet
piracy
Meanwhile the great Napster/MP3 debate rages on with little signs of a resolution despite the recent announcement by one of the majors BMG that they have agreed a partnership with Napster.
According to the most conservative estimates, there are at least 25 million infringing files available on file-trading services such as Napster alone. The rate of downloading all music from the Internet, is estimated at 1 billion downloads annually. Already 15,000 sites hosting over 3 million files were removed from the Internet due to legal actions with many more pending.
A quick perusal by hotpress reveals that most Irish bands have material available on Napster. Apart from the big guns like U2, The Corrs and Van Morrison who might expect to be featured, newer bands such as Wilt, Relish and JJ72 all have tracks available for download. Six Juliet Turner songs were available on one search we conducted and Something Happens entire best of collection was listed as available for download. Other Irish acts available on Napster included artists as varied as Mundy whose song To You I Bestow was listed several times, Joe Dolan (with no less than 64 of his songs listed) and, yes, even Dustin The Turkey whose entire Unplucked album has made it onto Napster!
To combat the threat posed by online piracy a new group Artists Against Piracy (www.artistsagainstpiracy.com) has been formed. The group includes major names in the rock/pop world such as Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera and Blink 182 along with critically acclaimed solo artists such as Aimee Mann and ex-Byrd Chris Hillman. Their primary goals are to create public awareness, appreciation and understanding of the value of music. And to build a forum in which both the artistic community and the public will have access to information that will foster a better understanding of intellectual property and copyright issues as these issues pertain to music on the Internet.
Artists Against Piracy plan to launch a worldwide advertising campaign in the coming months to underline the importance of the rights of copyright holders to be paid for their work.
Meanwhile the Napster/BMG partnership is seen as an invitation to others in the industry to participate in the development of a secure and membership-based service.
Under the agreement BMG will loan Napster cash to create this membership-based service for which subscribers will pay an annual or monthly fee.
The service will, according to a statement from BMG preserve the Napster experience while at the same time providing payments to rightholders, including recording artists, songwriters, recording companies, and music publishers. When (and if) it is finally up and running it is expected to form the basis of an exciting new business model for the future of the music industry. BMG will drop out of a lawsuit filed against Napster, which is being pursued by the four other major labels in the US, which is now being heard. Watch this space!