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Former Warner Music UK boss Rob Dickins has suggested a new way to fight piracy: by making music cheaper!
Dickins, who also headed the BPI at one time (the UK equivalent of the RIAA), says that instead of charging upwards of up to $10 per album, if each album were at the cost of a single track today, then it would end the piracy problem. He says if music buying is changed into an impulse buy, then people will buy more music and not think so much about just how much money they're spending.
Paul Quirk, head of the Entertainment Retailers Association, strongly disagreed with Dickins' suggestion, calling this plan a "non-starter" due to the "basic arithmetic" of the plan. Quirk also said that Dickins was part of the older generation of music execs that profited from high prices, "gave the music business a bad name", and is now only a fan of cheap music now that his livelihood is not dependent on music revenue.
However, Dickins responded by saying that he was not merely advocating dirt cheap music, or music at any specific price, but rather just the notion of "non-decision" buying. "Unfortunately Paul is reacting to headlines and rather than serious debate, is speaking in sound bites. My point addressed online albums of which we all know has around 80 percent piracy and by bringing the price down to a 'non-decision' payment, I believe piracy could be countered to a degree but more importantly it would bring in the enormous peripheral buys. This would allow physical albums to be developed to really give the fans something special at a much higher price points as illustrated by Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV which would make the retail experience much more interesting to the consumer and the retail outlook more positive," Dickins posted in the comments section of MusicWeek, as a reply to Paul Quirks assertions.
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Dickins, who also headed the BPI at one time (the UK equivalent of the RIAA), says that instead of charging upwards of up to $10 per album, if each album were at the cost of a single track today, then it would end the piracy problem. He says if music buying is changed into an impulse buy, then people will buy more music and not think so much about just how much money they're spending.
Paul Quirk, head of the Entertainment Retailers Association, strongly disagreed with Dickins' suggestion, calling this plan a "non-starter" due to the "basic arithmetic" of the plan. Quirk also said that Dickins was part of the older generation of music execs that profited from high prices, "gave the music business a bad name", and is now only a fan of cheap music now that his livelihood is not dependent on music revenue.
However, Dickins responded by saying that he was not merely advocating dirt cheap music, or music at any specific price, but rather just the notion of "non-decision" buying. "Unfortunately Paul is reacting to headlines and rather than serious debate, is speaking in sound bites. My point addressed online albums of which we all know has around 80 percent piracy and by bringing the price down to a 'non-decision' payment, I believe piracy could be countered to a degree but more importantly it would bring in the enormous peripheral buys. This would allow physical albums to be developed to really give the fans something special at a much higher price points as illustrated by Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV which would make the retail experience much more interesting to the consumer and the retail outlook more positive," Dickins posted in the comments section of MusicWeek, as a reply to Paul Quirks assertions.
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