While the world’s ‘big four’ music companies continue to enamour themselves to online music lovers via the progressive removal of Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection, one of those major players is planning to incorporate a new flat rate download charge into user bills to help stem the tide of music piracy.
Warner Music wants to implement a monthly set-rate download charge. Credit: Warner Bros.
Specifically, Warner Music, the world’s third-biggest music company, has revealed that it would like to see current online music payments and charges replaced by a mandatory download fee that would be incorporated as a payment extra into the monthly Internet bill of every user.
Warner Music’s vision for music as a charged service would see consumers no longer entering into physical or virtual purchases of content via Compact Disc or the likes of iTunes, but rather paying a fixed monthly rate in order to legally download from all manner of suppliers, including file-sharing destinations (P2P) such as BitTorrent.
According to reports in the National Post and Portfolio, Warner Music has recently employed the services of renowned future thinker and digital media veteran Jim Griffin (managing director of OneHouse LLC) to help the struggling online music platform to reap more reward from the download world -- a business arena where major music labels have struggled to prosper.
“We are in the earliest stages of what is a dynamic conversation about licensing opportunities in the global digital marketplace,” commented Warner Music in a related statement. “We intend to examine ways to work with new ideas advocated by people like Griffin to see if these new approaches can become a successful reality.”
Speaking to Portfolio regarding the possibility of embedded music download fees, Mr. Griffin offered that the music industry needs to shift its focus towards music becoming a service rather than merely a product.
“We need to get ready to let go and grab the next vine,” he offered, “which is a pool of money and a fair way to split it up, rather than controlling the quantity and destiny of sound recordings.”
With the appointment of Mr. Griffin, Warner Music hopes to become a forerunner in the formation of an independent, industry-led organisation that could collect as much as $20 billion USD per year for redistribution throughout the music industry.
The Songwriters Association of Canada has also called for the adoption of a similar fixed-charge system, which would see Internet subscribers shouldering an extra $5 CAD per month on top of their service bills.
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