Great article written here by Greg Sandoval at cnet. 

Published in 2008, we can attest that digital promos are even more prevelant today and we are betting that it's going to become the de-facto standard some day soon.

French lawmakers passed a tough new measure to crack down on illegal downloading.

In our ever evolving mission to decrease or stop leaking, we are definitely happy to see this tougher law.

Read the full CNN article here.

Here is a well written article on the debate over watermarking and digital promos written by Mike Riggs.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=37563

I commented underneath the article.  I'd also like to add here, that we have done everything in our power and will continue to address the journalist experience when using our digital service. We haven't forgotten about you and the reason we understand you, is because we have been in your shoes before with other ventures.

How?

- Our watermarks are undectible by the ear and the sound quality is still top notch
- Contacts that get invited through Haulix, don't have to remember login/passwords and will never have to fill out a long registration form
- We have a sophisticated way of bundling all labels' promos on one page if a contact gets invited by more than one label - yet all accounts stay separate and secure

Media contacts simply click a link in an invitation, initiate the promo download and then go back to doing what they do best, writing great reviews and articles for their publications.

Original Document: http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/DMR2009-key-statistics.pdf


IFPI DIGITAL MUSIC REPORT 2009: KEY STATISTICS
The growth of the digital business

In 2008 the digital music business internationally grew by around 25 per cent to

US$3.7 billion. Digital platforms now account for around 20 per cent of recorded

music sales, up from 15 per cent in 2007.

•

The recorded music industry generates a greater proportion of its revenues through

digital sales than the film, magazine and newspaper industries combined.

Industry Digital share of revenues

Games 35%

Recorded music 20%

Newspapers 4%

Films 4%

Magazines 1%

Source: PWC Global Entertainment and Media Report (2008), IFPI

•

Consumer demand for music is higher than ever. NPD research found that total music

consumption in the US rose by one third between 2003 and 2007. Nielsen Soundscan

reported overall sales at an all-time high in the US in 2008.

•

Single track downloads, up 24 per cent in 2008 to 1.4 billion units globally, continue

to drive the online market, but digital albums are also growing steadily (up 37%).

The top selling single of 2008 was Lil Wayne’s

Lollipop

.

Key markets

•

The US is the world leader in digital music sales, accounting for some 50 per cent of

the global digital music market value. Single track downloads crossed the one billion

mark for the first time in 2008, totalling 1.1 billion, up 27 per cent on 2007. Digital

album sales totalled 66 million, an increase of 32 per cent (Nielsen SoundScan).

•

In Japan, a predominantly mobile music market, digital sales helped overall trade

revenues to growth in the first half of 2008. 140 million mobile singles were sold in

2008, an increase of 26 per cent on the prior year (RIAJ).

•

The UK saw the biggest increase in digital sales in the first half of 2008 among the

top markets, with sales up by 45 per cent. 110 million single tracks were downloaded

in 2008, up 42 per cent on 2007. Digital album sales also rose sharply, by 65 per cent

to 10.3 million now accounting for 7.7 per cent of the albums market (OCC/BPI).

•

France saw digital music sales grow 49 per cent in 2008. 14.5 million online single

tracks were downloaded in 2008, up 20 per cent on 2007, while 1.4 million digital

albums were sold, up 27 per cent (SNEP).

•

In Germany, online single track downloads totalled 37.4 million in 2008, a 22 per cent

growth on 2007. Digital album sales increased by 57 per cent, totalling 4.4 million

(Media Control GfK International).

The challenge of unauthorised free music – key figures

•

Collating separate studies in 16 countries over a three-year period, IFPI estimates

more than 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of

around 95 per cent.

•

Overall 16 per cent of internet users in Europe regularly swapped infringing music on

file-sharing services in 2008 according to Jupiter Research.

•

Online piracy is hitting local repertoire. The number of new albums released in France

fell by eight per cent in the first half of 2008, new artist releases tumbled by 30 per

cent and the French share of newly-released albums fell from 15 to 10 per cent 2005-

08. In Spain, a sole new local artist featured in the Top 50 album chart to November

2008, down from 10 in 2003.

•

In the UK, Jupiter valued the lost to online piracy at £180 million annually, with a

cumulative loss of £1.1 billion by 2012 if nothing is done to address the problem.

•

Online infringement is becoming a big issue for the film industry. A total of 13.7

million films were distributed on P2P networks in France in May 2008, compared to

12.2 million cinema tickets sold (Equancy and Co and Tera Consultants).

The case for ISP cooperation

•

Unlawful file-sharing is driven more by the availability of unauthorised free music

than better choice. In the UK, EMR finds that 71 per cent of those file-sharing giving

“free music” as their main reason for doing so.

•

Research suggests the “graduated response” approach would be effective without

large numbers of disconnections. According to EMR, 72 per cent of consumers

would stop illegally file-sharing if told to do so by their ISP.

•

P2P file-sharing, the vast majority which is unauthorised copyrighted music and film,

accounts for up to 80 per cent of traffic on ISP networks (ipoque).

Addressing pre-release piracy

•

IFPI’s internet anti-piracy team has increased the number of links to infringing music

that it removed from 550,000 in 2007 to nearly three million in 2008. The team

focuses on pre-release piracy that hits albums at the most damaging time of their

release cycle.

While surfing around, I happened to find a long-winded debate on a French music website concerning the hate for VS. the acceptance of digital music promos. If you've got a good 30-45 minutes, you can read the whole thing here. We're happy to see our name mentioned in one of the posts too.

I've written quite a bit on this topic and I cannot stress enough how healthy digital promos are for the music industry. Our service really is a win-win situation for all parties involved in the pre-release to publications process. Seeing debates springing up here and there is actually a good thing though.  It's a definite sign that the industry is shifting. It's not hard to throw a Word Press website up and start playing the role of a music journalist/zine. Sure, at first, it's exciting to get CDs mailed to you. It legitimizes what you are doing and makes you feel important, that someone actually values what you have to say. But after awhile, when you hit the big time, you need a team of writers and the music coming in out-numbers your team's writing abilities. Digital promos cut down on processing time and money, resulting in a lighter load. Why wouldn't you embrace this?

That is the point of view of a media contact/journalist.

Artists, record labels and journalists are slowly accepting the industry shift. I like how one musician put it,

"I favor iPool and Haulix, because it is one of the only means to preserve the financial health of the small labels under the weight of the illegal downloading."

Seth Godin is a very smart marketing guy. In a talk he did at the Business of Software convention in 2008, one (of many) things stood out that he said,

"The model of connecting users to each other is the essence of how you are going to grow..."

I got to thinking, that's pretty much the bulk of what we do here at Haulix. We use online software to connect record labels to their media contacts in the pre-release promo process.