The Music Industry on (the) Line? Surviving Music Piracy in a Digital Era

Abstract

After successive years of growth during the 1990s, decreasing compact disc sales have been plaguing the music industry since 2000. Although several other reasons have been cited to explain the decline in sales, the music industry mainly puts the blame on physical and digital piracy. This article discusses both opportunities and challenges for the industry to survive in the digital era. Besides an analysis of the contemporary piracy problem, the industry is scanned for vulnerabilities with particular attention for organised crime involvement. The digitalisation of the music environment and the emergence of file sharing activities have pushed the industry towards on line music distribution. It is argued that this digital evolution and shift in business plan are beneficial to the reduction of organised crime involvement in the music industry.

Keywords: Music industry, Music piracy, Internet piracy, CD piracy, Organised crime, File sharing

JEL Classification: D23, D30, D40, F23, K00, K14, K42, L10, L21, L82, O31