#RandomThoughts #Piracy #Streaming #MusicIndustry #TVIndustry #Movies
🎵📺💻Have you ever wondered why the music industry seamlessly transitioned from the era of piracy to streaming services, while the TV and movie industry seems to be struggling to combat piracy through streaming platforms? Let’s dive into this fascinating observation and explore some random thoughts on the matter.
The Success Story of the Music Industry
🎧 The music industry faced a major challenge with the rise of piracy in the late 90s and early 2000s. Peer-to-peer file sharing sites like Napster made it easy for users to access and download music for free, leading to a significant decline in album sales.
🎶 However, the music industry quickly adapted and embraced the digital revolution by introducing legal streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. They offered affordable subscription plans that allowed users to access a vast library of songs legally, with high-quality audio and offline listening options.
💡 This transition not only helped the music industry combat piracy but also led to a surge in revenue from streaming services. Artists could now reach a global audience, and fans had access to their favorite music anytime, anywhere.
The Challenges Faced by the TV/Movie Industry
🎬 In contrast, the TV and movie industry has faced challenges in combating piracy through streaming platforms. While services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video offer legal access to a vast library of TV shows and movies, unauthorized streaming sites continue to thrive.
🔒 The issue lies in the availability of exclusive content on different streaming platforms, leading consumers to resort to piracy to access all their favorite shows and movies. Additionally, streaming services often region-lock content, further driving users to illegal streaming sites for unrestricted access.
🤔 The TV and movie industry must find a way to adapt to the changing landscape of streaming services and combat piracy effectively. Creating a streamlined platform for accessing all content, regardless of exclusivity, and offering affordable subscription plans could be a step in the right direction.
Final Thoughts
💠As we ponder over the contrasting approaches of the music industry and the TV/movie industry towards piracy and streaming, it becomes clear that adaptability and innovation are key in combating digital piracy.
🎶🎬 What are your random thoughts on this intriguing topic? Do you believe the TV and movie industry can learn from the success of the music industry in tackling piracy through streaming? Share your thoughts and let’s continue the conversation!
Mind if I steal this for UnethicalLifeProTips?
The secret ingredient is exclusive content
Probably cos with music if you pay you don’t get ads.
I mean, tv and movies did briefly solve it too, then they went crazy seeing dollar signs and went right back to being shitty.
They revitalized it by splitting streaming into so many different services, making it less convenient, and adding advertisements. Basically they wanted to recreate the cable TV model, which is the thing that caused people to opt for piracy in the first place. Unsurprisingly as they’ve gotten closer to a Cable 2.0 reality people have returned to piracy.
the music industry realized selling hard copies isn’t a business model anymore and succumbed to getting pennies for streaming. it’s making its money through live concerts now (waaah, why are my concert tickets so expensive? also, fuck life nation and ticketmaster, but that’s a different issue).
the film industry can’t go live, so they’re stuck with whole generations thinking art should be free.
Not really a fair comparison. Artists don’t make much through streaming music and so use streaming to build a fan base with the real money coming from touring. Music is basically a commercial with a changed business model.  Â
For tv/movies, the streamed product is still the final product. Exclusive content and content divided among platforms is annoying but allows for a business model that can realize some revenue for the producers. The everything on Netflix model wouldn’t have lasted (and would have resulted in hiked prices by Netflix as a monopoly so piracy regardless).Â
If by solve you mean “don’t pay artists” then I guess they solved it alright.
I think the music industry realized that there was nothing they could really do to stop music being shared. It was just too damn convenient to throw 1000 songs onto an iPod.
They tried suing, installing rootkits on the computers when legitimately bought CDs were put into a computer’s CD/DVD drive, shaming (“you wouldn’t download a car”), etc. They realized that it would be a never ending, and expensive, fight with file sharing. What to do?
They didn’t give up, though. They watched as people were so enamored with the convenience of it all, that the vast majority stopped caring about audio quality. While older generations may have had transistor radios that had terrible audio quality, a large portion of them had at home, a stereo system as large as furniture. They liked to listen to music on the go, but many also took time to listen to the same music on vinyl, tape and CDs; on stereos that could reproduce the sounds you can’t hear, but can feel.
The recording industry also saw the threat of Indie music really figuring out how to use the Internet to promote, bypassing the record companies. Soundcloud and bandcamp were starting to become mainstream, and bands that would normally not get a contract, get one due to building their own following.
So, they did the only thing they could do and made a deal with Spotify and Pandora and the other streamers. While no longer getting the Scrooge McDuck money, the recording industry cut a sweet deal where they still somehow get the lion’s share and the artists get fucked even more.
The RIAA sacrificed protecting the cash cow just to make sure they continued to exist.
TV didn’t have that problem. Sure, there were 50 gillion TV stations on cable, but they were almost all owned by the same 5 or 6 megacorps. Even with YouTube, and Atom Films and the like before it, almost nobody would be able to create something regularly that would get millions of eyeballs each week.
There is a fantastic fan-made Fallout series. How many Fallout fans know it exists? I would bet far more people learned of Fallout because of the new Amazon show, than Fallout fans watched the fan show.
I’m just saying that there is very little incentive for the TV/movie industry to give up on their traditional model. Even with rampant piracy, they still make a shitload of money. They know that only a relatively small percentage of people actually pirate.
So, I believe, that the TV/movie industry will continue to try some more things to shaft customers. They eventually may lose the battle, but organizations that powerful never lose the war.
Of course, other industries have failed because of improved technology or hubris; usually both. Hollywood watched what happened to the RIAA and will spend billions to make sure it doesn’t happen to them.
If Sony music decided to create their own streaming platform, and then all the record labels and some of the artists all did the same, music piracy would skyrocket.
“Solved” is a subjective term. Sure, the labels are getting their money, but I’m wondering at what the numbers would look like if you compared the money the artists make from streaming platforms now compared the same number of sales + piracy “back in the day”. I don’t doubt there’d be some out there looking at how many plays they got on Spotify and the cheque they got for it, and longing for the glory days of peak Napster.