Dance Music vs Piracy: A Survey

 Whatever your views on the situation, it’s impossible to deny that file-sharing and piracy have had a big effect on the dance music world. Compilation sales are drastically lower than 10 years ago for the vast majority, and there are scarce amounts of money in record sales for all but the most successful of dance music artists. Running a label has to be a labour of love these days, unless you build other businesses around it, and producers have no choice but to DJ or tour incessantly if they want to survive. Living off just making music isn’t an option any more.
 
Whether any of this is necessarily a bad thing depends on who you ask, but the bottom line is that music is being spread around the internet without the consent of the people who made it and own it. As the dance music industry has always been the earliest to embrace new technologies – leading the way with digital downloads for example – and because it only ever seems to be the big record labels we hear from when matters of piracy and such are concerned, we decided it was time to gauge the feeling in our world.
 
We asked over 200 record label managers, PR agents, producers, artists and promo companies to complete our survey, so as to give some indication as to the feelings and opinions of our industry with regard to file-sharing, piracy and everything that goes with it.
 
What emerges from our results is that the vast majority feel that their business has been affected by piracy, and that the process of trying to get copyright-infringing links taken down from Google and sharing sites is both something which is not widely understood and a process that doesn’t always succeed. And while the three strikes system of punishing persistent illegal downloaders that is to be introduced in the UK seems to be favoured by a majority, only a small percentage of those surveyed believe that only the users should be targeted by anti-piracy measures – rather than tackling the supply side of the problem as well or instead.
 
Comment and debate to follow, plus the most insightful and interesting responses from those surveyed.
 
 
Has your business been adversely affected by piracy in the last decade?
Yes  74.3%
No  14.9%
Don't know  10.9%
 
Do you think piracy is affecting you more than it was 5 years ago?
Yes  77.6%
No  13.9%
Don't know  8.5%
 
Do you use a promo service like FATdrop?
Yes  54.3%
No  45.7%
 
If you don't use such a promo service, why not?
Too expensive  37.8%
Worried about promos getting shared  12.2%
Other  50.0%
 
What have been the most effective anti-piracy measures your company has employed?
Drop-outs / voiceovers on promo copies  17.4%
Using low bitrate promos  16.1%
Watermarking CDs / Promos  6.0%
Using FATdrop  9.4%
Employing a secondary company to take down links  18.1%
Not sending out promos  19.5%
Other  13.4%
 
Do you still send out CD promos?
Yes  42.6%
No  57.4%
 
If you have tried using both CDs and digital promos, have you found it harder to get journalists to review your releases if you send download links instead of physical copies?  
Yes  49.3%
No  13.2%
No difference  37.5%
 
Do you think Google and other search engines should be made to block links to illegal torrent and download sites?
Yes  65.0%
No  25.6%
Don't know  9.4%
 
Are you aware of how to submit a copyright infringement claim to Google? (http://www.google.co.uk/dmca.html)
Yes  38.6%
No  61.4%
 
Do you support the “3 strikes” rule that bans internet users who persistently illegally download content?
Yes  50.6%
No  31.4%
Don't know  17.9%
 
Who should governments target in attempts to curb piracy?
ISPs & file-hostings sites  62.8%
Users  5.1%
Both  32.1%
 
Do you take actions to remove unauthorised use of material yourself?
Yes  65.8%
No  34.2%
 
If you’ve found your content being hosted illegally somewhere, have you been able to get it taken down by the site owners?
Always  14.2%
Sometimes  65.8%
Never  20.0%
 
Do you claim any royalties for your material that is used on YouTube or do you ask for it to be removed?
Claim royalties  25.3%
Ask for it to be removed  13.6%
Neither  61.0%
 
Do you feel that legal streaming services like Spotify are beneficial or damaging to your business?
Beneficial  44.2%
Damaging  15.6% 
Neither  40.3%
 
Do you give any blogs permission to post your music?
Yes  65.6%
No  34.4%