NBN will have “disastrous results”, says local music industry

It’s not manufactured music, uncapped global capitalism and the demise of live venues which will eventually end the Australian music industry, a trade organisation has claimed. No: the culprit is the National Broadband Network. Apparently letting people outside ADSL service areas have access to first-world Internet speeds so they can download music as fast as the tens of millions of people already doing it will have “disastrous results”.

According to an annual report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2012 is the first year the music industry has started to show signs of positivity since the digital revolution hit it like an out of control bus, and it’s now fully on board the Internet. Nevertheless, the IFPI claims to be facing stiff competition from unlicensed digital music sources, and in a case study of the Australian market, managed to blame the Internet both for a recent upswing and some sort of nebulous, NBN-driven piracy threat.

“The local recorded music industry experienced its first upwards trend since 2009. This growth can be attributed to the growing demand and consumption of digital music products, which made up 46.29% of the industry’s dollar value in 2012, compared to 36.7% in 2011 and 27.2% in 2010. However, local rights organisations, including ARIA are concerned that whilst the new NBN opens up endless possibilities for local content industries, if more action isn’t taken by the Government and ISPs to curb piracy levels, the NBN could have disastrous results for the local industry,” the case study said.

You can download the full report and the Australian case study to peruse at your convenience.

Source: Delimiter