Alright, so this title is really unimaginative, but don't judge a book by it's cover.

During my perusal of Digg.com, I came across an article concerning the torrent site, The Pirate Bay. In it, the writer reviews a podcast done by the BBC with Peter Sunde, an administrator of The Pirate Bay. For those unfamiliar with The Pirate Bay or torrents, The Pirate Bay is a website that tracks the progress of downloads across the file sharing service BitTorrent. [Note: If SOCAN or any other industry group is reading this, everybody knows about this site. It's been well covered by the media.] If you need more information, Wikipedia has an excellent write up.

Let me make it clear that I disagree with the concept of piracy. I believe that artists should be paid for their work. Otherwise, there will be little incentive to produce new music or films.

However, Peter Sunde makes an interesting point: Big recording companies are still selling CDs and rely heavily on sales to generate revenue, but CDs are no longer the format of choice. Rather, with the rise of digital audio players such as the Apple iPod, consumers have been increasingly choosing digital audio file formats rather than traditional CDs to enjoy their music. Sunde notes that you cannot put a CD directly into a digital audio player and consumers want what is convenient to them. Hence the popularity of the Apple iTunes store.

I thought about Sunde's comments and tried to recall the last time I saw anybody use a CD player. I can only remember two instances of someone using a CD player on public transit in the last 3 years.

Although I don't agree with The Pirate Bay's methods, record companies should consider adopting its approach. According to reports, The Pirate Bay was generating $75,000 in advertising revenue per month. Perhaps it is time for marketing companies to work with the record companies to determine a business model to distribute music in exchange for brand promotion.

Wait, why am I giving away this idea for free?

        

 

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