The Music Industry Goes Digital

Major record companies may have finally come up with a solution to the growing threat of piracy and illegal file-sharing.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone-maker, has launched a Comes with Music brand mobile phone which allows users who have bought the phone to download songs from Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI, and Warner Music to the handset or a personal computer (Sabbagh 2008).

The catch?

Well, there is no catch as long as you pay for the mobile phone which includes this revolutionary service. Singapore was the first country in Asia with Nokia's Comes with Music, and the Finnish company's flagship N97 model which was recently launch retails for S$1,228 with the service (Nokia 2009).

"You'll be able to download any song you want on to the handset or one personal computer for the first 12 months, and keep all of them forever," said Jo Harlow, a vice-president of Nokia.

This development comes hot on the heels of research data from Nielsen Soundscan which showed that albums sales in America dropped for the seventh time in eight years (CNN Money 2009). As the CD format's profit-making function to the recording industry has been on the wane since the turn of the century when downloading and file-sharing emerged on the internet, the ailing recording industry has turned to a new form of selling music - digital music retailing, proving that form follows function (Bear 2009).

Why do people still do it?

As I have mentioned before in an earlier post, copyright infringement and illegal downloading is nothing new, but why do people still do it?

Some people would say that music labels are overcharging for CDs, so downloading and file-sharing are ways to claim justice. Robin Hood was and always will be considered a hero, but does that make stealing right?

Would you want people who disapprove of your business to steal from you?

Take this into consideration: downloading illegally is not different from walking out from a Tower Records store without paying for a Coldplay record.

References:

Bear, JH 2009, Form and function in document design, About.com, viewed 27 May 2009, http://desktoppub.about.com/od/graphicdesign/a/formfunction.htm.

Sabbagh, D 2008, Nokia offers unlimited music for one-off fee, Australian IT, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24440421-15306,00.html.

CNN Money.com 2009, Sour note: Music sales down in 2008, viewed 12 June 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/01/news/companies/music.reut/index.htm.