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Cultural changes in music

Brought about by ICT

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Problems faced by the music industry

• E-commerce CD stores based abroad offering cheap CDs.

• Prices of CDs have fallen to compete – great for consumers but not so good for record companies.

• A move away from physical CDs to downloads.

• Huge increase in piracy and file sharing.

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The way people listen to music has changed

• People want certain tracks – not always the whole CD.

• People want choice – they do not want to be limited by the stock of a store.

• People want immediacy – they do not always want to wait for music.

• People want music to be transferred to other devices (iPods, MP3 players, etc.)

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How ICT has helped change the music culture

The convergence of mobilephone, Internet and MP3players.You can access the Internet

onyour mobile phone, download music tracks and store them on the MP3 player. No need

for three devices – they are

all in the one.

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The growth of downloads• UK music fans are the

biggest buyers per head of CDs in the world.

• Physical CDs are still extremely popular.

• Downloads are very popular for singles (one track).

• Customers like the unlimited ‘shelf space’ in on-line stores.

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The advantages of downloads

• You can download music anywhere you can access the Internet.

• No opening times.• Music is in a format you can

immediately use on portable players.

• You do not need to buy the whole CD if you only like one track.

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What can you download?You can download:• an iTunes track or complete

album• a video, for example from

YouTube• a ring tone for your phone• a subscription library

(here you only access the music you play by paying a monthly fee)

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Some problems• For each legal download of music,

there are 40 illegal downloads.• If you download music you have

nothing to sell – if times are hard you can sell CDs.

• Peer to peer file sharing sites encourage people to share their music illegally.

• Piracy of music often diverts money into other crimes.

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File sharingWhat is it?• File sharing means trading digital

files with other users over the Internet.

• Users trade files by downloading to obtain them and then uploading to distribute them.

• Downloading may be legal or illegal.

• Uploading – allowing others access to your digital files is nearly always illegal.

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File sharing cont’d• There are lots of sites on the

Internet where music can be downloaded legally.

• Such sites include:iTunesNapsterTesco downloadMSN Music Club

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File sharing cont’d• To upload and allow file

sharing, special software called file sharing software is needed.

• It is illegal to upload music in this way.

• To make sure you do not fall foul of the law, it is best not to have the file sharing software installed on your computer.

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Short Case study 1British and Dutch police shut down pre-release pirate

site• A file sharing site shared pre-release music CDs

among its members.• They made money from donations from members using

PayPal.• To be a member you had to prove that you had music

you could offer others.• Within minutes of a new music pre-release track

appearing, hundreds of copies had been made and appeared in different places on the Internet.

• The recording industry said the closure of the site was an important victory in the fight against copyright theft.

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Short Case study 2 • Kazaa was originally a

free file sharing site.• Following legal action

they had to pay the music industry £53 million damages.

• They have now become a legal download site.