Bragg Urges Music Biz To Legalise P2P, Scrap ‘Three-Strikes’

[p2p rules]

Billy Bragg and his manager have renewed their call to legalise unauthorised P2P downloads. Writing on Comment Is Free, the songwriter, who spoke at paidContent:UK’s EconMusic seminar last year, said: “The next generation of music fans may no longer want to pay for music, but they are still hungry to hear it. The challenge to the industry is to find ways to monetise their behaviour ... Clearly, some form of P2P subscription service is the way forward.”

Writing at C&binet’s blog, Bragg’s manager Peter Jenner, a director of Music Managers’ Forum who called for legal P2P at this year’s Midem, advocates monetising music download habits that he wants called “unauthorised”, rather than the more loaded “theft”: “The present debate seems to be mostly about protecting the financing of the industry built around the physical manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion of the creative goods, rather than the welfare of the creators.”

Qtrax has built a legal, ad-supported business on top of the Gnutella network, but Virgin Media scrapped a long-planned legal P2P service earlier this year after major-label complaints. But there’s still momentum - Virgin is still planning something innovative and PRS For Music, recognising that 95 percent of music downloads are illegal, last week said that it would try to understand “monetising ... an illegal digital market ... that’s far larger than the legal one”. Bragg said the alternative of disconnecting ISP customers after “three strikes” - an idea pushed by a new coalition of UK entertainment companies - would be counter-productive.

source: paidContent:uk