Unknown Prospect for Collecting Fees for Music Downloading
For many years, the copyright issue of music works on the Internet has always been a big problem among record companies and music websites. As early as last year, there were media that reported from 2013, several big record companies of Universal Music etc. would combine websites of QQ Music and Xiami.com etc. and try to adopt the monthly payment system for music downloading payment. The subsequent reports almost have said with certainty and confirmed that music payment downloading have been a matter “that has been finally determined.”
Half a year has passed, three major record companies of Universal Music, Sony and Warner called together main stream domestic Internet music companies in May this year, and required the latter to carry out on line music payment services respectively no later than June 5. And as early as April this year, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, has clearly indicated that the payment for Internet music downloading would be inevitable.
Maybe after the “edifying” of many years’ free music, it’s time when consumers should change their habits. In fact, for music websites, the free model not only faces the charge of “pirate,” but also is unable to increase cash flow. But this is the truth for China’s domestic market. If under the restriction of the copyright party, there are unified charging behaviors, isn’t it a piece of good news? The key lies in that music is used after paying the copyright party, it itself is natural. This is the inevitable way of industrial normalization.
What must be pointed out is that, the copyright party does not require all services of music website to charge fees, but requires all companies to adopt the way of free of charge for on-line listening of music, but charge fees for services of high quality and off-line listening etc. In fact, at present, all major music websites of QQ Music and Xiami.com etc. have provided paid services of grading. Taking QQ Music as an example, at present, free users may freely download standard quality music, but green diamond users who just pay 10 yuan per month may enjoy high quality music that can rival CD quality. This involves the “Long Tail Effect” in music download market: most people will listen to music, but those who pursue new songs and have downloading demands each month are the minority.
There is another side of the matter. From the angle of respecting the intellectual property of a creator, it is natural to download music only through payment. But for music, especially for popular music, it is an industry whose profits are based on the amount of audiences. If fees are charged for downloading, it certainly will influence the spreading, especially for new singers. If when a certain singer is mentioned, what people feel is unfamiliar, we cannot but say that it is lose-lose for both consumers and music companies.
It is undeniable that the growing up of MP3 and the Internet has thoroughly changed the form of the music industry. Consumers are used to download free songs from the Internet, accompanying the phenomena of the closing down of disc shops and the declining of the sales amount of discs. There are insiders with one voice saying that “discs are dead.” Even pirate CDs disappear from the scene, let alone the legal copies.
But even the profits of music industry have declined, the profits still exist, and they just have changed the forms. The current situation is that as long as there is one singer who is willing to provide copyright free of charge, then majority of singers may choose to provide copyrights free of charge. Because of doing so, with the increase of the spreading amount, the possibility of a singer who can earn more income through commercial performances also increases. For example, the total amount of music downloading for the combination of “Phoenix Legend” has broken through 300 million times, and it is said that the reward of an associated commercial performance has reached 600,000 yuan for one performance. This means that more often consumers have begun to pay rewards to singers in another form. The time has changed, consumers have changed, and the way of gaining profits of an industry also certainly will be changed.
The spreading way of popular songs has been changed, the declining of unit price is an inevitable trend, and purely collecting fees for downloading may not solve the relevant problems.
For example, some people believe that because of the free downloading nowadays, the income of musicians is low, so the original music is manufactured in a rough way. After collecting fees for downloading music on the Internet, if record companies want to make profits, they have to possess high quality music content as guarantee. Only when songs are welcomed and the amount of downloading is large, can high profits be realized. In fact such an opinion is somewhat a wishful thinking. The change of music fashion trends is nothing but triggered by social and technical development, which together with the change of profit model is one of the two sides of a coin.
With the development of technologies, from vinyl records to tapes, CD and today’s smartphones, the marginal cost for listening to songs in the aspect of equipment has already been zero. This certainly makes the general public become song listeners, and certainly pushes the “catchy songs” and “magic songs” to be popular on the Internet. Many singers just cater such a phenomenon, want to make one song become popular on the Internet, and then participate in commercial performances for earning money.
Many people admire the iPod+iTunes model of iPhone, but what background of iPhone model can not be ignored is that in the western society, there have long been perfect intellectual property protection rules, and people have also possessed the sense of intellectual property protection, but these do not exist in China. In simple terms, people accept paying 20 yuan for buying one pound of meat, but emotionally don’t want to pay 20 yuan for downloading a song.
Under the foundation of such social consciousness and technologies, naturally the current profit model for popular music industry will emerge. Maybe this is also the reason why big record companies are still waiting and being hesitative. Therefore, where the profit model of China’s popular music will go, it still needs the market to give a judgment. Currently the exploration of collecting fees may only be regarded as one step.
Originally published on Oriental Morning Post | 2013-6-7
