Yet Again, File Sharing Correlated To Biggest Buyers

from the how-many-times-do-we-need-to-cover-this? dept

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At this point, it's not a surprise since we've covered this in study , after study , after study , after study , after study , after study before, but Joe Karaganis' recent "tease" of his latest "copy culture" study shows that the biggest "pirates" also tend to be the biggest buyers Now, as we've said before (and will now say again), no one is suggesting in any way that this means there's a causal relationship between infringement and sales. Not at all. But it does mean that those who focus on "attacking" those who infringe, and labeling them "pirates" and pissing them off with various anti-fan strategies are making a huge mistake. These are people who can and do buy. The focus, instead, should be on providing them with improved legal and authorized ways to get what they want in a format they want. Time and time again, we've seen that this is thereal strategy that works long term.The study also highlights ( yet again ) just how much people share with friends and family -- something that no amount of copyright "enforcement" is going to stop. That's something that most people think is completely normal and "reasonable" for the most part. So it's little surprise that large parts of people's music collections seem to come from friends and family, especially the younger generation (where it's even greater than downloading from the internet).This, once again, suggests that the absolute wrong strategy is to focus on greater enforcement. It's not going to stop that kind of sharing at all. It seems entirely counterproductive, and only serves to piss off those who are most interested in the music (and often the most interested in paying).The end result is the same as always. The problem is not "piracy." It's just a symptom of failing to properly respond to the market. The market doesn't "just want stuff for free." I keep seeing people claim that piracy definitively decreases sales, but we know that's not true. We've seen some cases where it has helped sales -- so what explains the difference? I'd posit it's pretty simple:. However, if you do treat your fans like fans, give them ways to support you, don't act like they're criminals, and actually adapt to the changing market, you can turn what would otherwise be a negative into a positive. But it involves quite a bit of work, and that's the big challenge.

Filed Under: buyers, fans, file sharing, research