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Goodbye cassettes and CDs

Cyberspace is growing into a huge marketplace for music

TWIN ADVANTAGE When it comes to prices, downloaded music has advantages for both the vendor and the consumer

Distributing music has come a long way since LPs, cassettes and CDs. Now the Internet might consign CDs to just hang as ornaments from autorickshaws.

Sharing of music on the Net can be traced way back to 1999 when Napster became the first service, which allowed people to freely exchange music on the Internet. Napster was the ultimate bolt from the blue for the recording industry and also a big eye-opener. A series of lawsuits made sharing of copyrighted music using Napster and similar programmes illegal but the recording industry realised that selling music over the Internet is capable of raking in megabucks.

The U.S. was the first market for online music and today sales have skyrocketed. Downloads have increased by 77 per cent in the first half of 2006 and traditional album sales (CDs and cassettes) fell by 4.2 per cent. More than 14 million full albums were downloaded in the period.

In the U.K., another big market for the music industry, similar growth has been reported. In fact, artistes and their managers are beginning to target Internet sales. India is one of the biggest markets waiting to be tapped for the online music industry. The first requisite is broadband Internet and at least in urban India it is penetrating fast. But what is missing is a big player who can set the tempo for the market. Apple's iTunes is the undisputed world leader but its music store service is still unavailable in India, and no dates are known for its launch. So, for now, it has been left to the broadband service providers (Tata Indicom and Airtel are big players) to offer music download services for subscribers.

So, what makes digital music so sellable? Sheer convenience, according to Kumar. "I have a few hundred songs on my laptop. Imagine me lugging everything in CDs, or worse, in cassettes."

Pradeep John, student and audiophile, further explains that the ability to organise music easily and then portability between devices are attractive. "From using MP3s for so many years everyone now knows that any media player comes with a media library. Here you can easily search for your music and play at a click. In most homes today, music systems are connected to PCs so the problem of bad speakers has been solved. And with an iPod you can carry your music anywhere with you."

When it comes to prices, downloaded music has advantages for both the vendor and the consumer. For the vendor, there are no headaches of handling physical merchandise and you can choose to buy even a single track if you want. But all providers, including Indian, offer packages. For example, iTunes in the U.K. charges subscribers £8.99 (Rs. 800) for 40 MP3 files a month and for £14.99 (Rs. 1,300), they get 90. Tracks cost less than 23p (Rs. 20) each this way instead of the 79p (Rs. 70) for a one-off purchase. Also, it is claimed package deals encourage listeners to try new music because it is cheaper. Though credit cards are the preferred payment mode abroad, some operators in India offer to bill the songs along with the monthly bill for Internet services.

Sites already popular are www.downloadpunk.com for punk, www.classical.com for western classical and www.calabashmusic.com for world music. And DJs who need high-quality tracks also need not lug LPs around wherever they go.

Services such as Bleep, Beatport and DJ Download offer high quality MP3s, WAV or even Flac (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files.

ANAND SANKAR

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