Far be it for me to offer business advice in the music industry to Simon Cowell and his colleagues. But just this once I'm going to reach for my high-waistband trousers and offer up a counter argument to the music industry's belief that beating illegal downloading into submission with lawyers will result in success.
So why has the subject of illegal downloading reared its head again? What about the Digital Economy Act that was set to put an end to all of that? Figures out this week have shown that it is still on the rise despite the attempts of government and industry bosses to stamp it out with a series of court orders and threatening letters. Music lovers with a broadband connection are still accessing music for free despite the best attempts of governments and record labels, so where did it all go wrong?
The simple truth of the matter is that it's all too little too late. The old fashioned business model of people buying singles and albums individually for an extortionate price seems to be the major stumbling block on the road to legal download enlightenment, and as a result the levels of illegal downloads are still hitting record highs.
So with 67 different legal online services where people can buy their music to download, it would seem that nobody is biting. Quite simply, the record companies have become uncompetitive in their own industry.
So what will it take for people to stop downloading illegally and for the majority of music lovers to pay for the songs they listen to?
It will take a change of attitude both in society and from the record companies for this to happen. The music industry has been left behind by the blistering pace of the internet, still choking on the dust of both what the illegal sites can offer and how best to utilise the technology available. Illegal services can offer a mind boggling choice of songs that are easy to download, yet there is no killer legal service that can keep up with this technology for a price the consumer is willing to pay.
Record company bosses still have an idea that it can be like the good old days, where millions of people bought singles and they could charge what they wanted for albums. Not any more. With a viable alternative on offer, people are abandoning the legal route in their millions, choosing to follow music in their own way. It is not all bad news for the acts themselves as they can still make money from going on tour and selling merchandise, but the days of albums and singles being sold at a premium are well and truly over.
To get out of this slump, record companies need to embrace the technology available and the opportunities it brings. They have made themselves uncompetitive in their own marketplace and the only way to change this is through a radical reform of how music is bought, sold and consumed. Sticking to your guns and relying on the government to introduce new laws will only alienate the industry to more people, and there is a huge opportunity available for any company that is brave enough to embrace the new music world.
You can read more information on the news of the increase in illegal downloads here.
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