As an individual, I’m not particularly concerned about copyright theft. As a younger man I stole media on the web - be it over NNTP, IRC, P2P or just directly online - and I have the means to download anonymously enough to avoid detection. So why - with a world of free media at my fingertips - do I buy all of my media legitimately, online?

Why I buy my media rather than steal it

It’s easy. Whether you’re buying from Amazon, iTunes or any of the secondary stores, it’s pretty easy to download a song and get it onto your favourite device. The technology is there. With illegal sources, you often have to search for longer to find what you want, and then add it manually to your music collection, maybe even doing the tagging and naming yourself (if you’re anal, like me). It’s reliable. When I download a song or movie from a legitimate store, I can be pretty sure it’s going to be the quality I asked for, in the language I wanted, and it’s just going to play. Fast downloads. No crappy BitTorrent connections. The movies download super fast, and with some services I can even stream them as they download. I have disposable income. In my earlier years I didn’t. Now I do. I can afford to buy media.

Why I consider downloading illegally

DRM and restrictions. If I download illegally, I can use the film on any device I like. I don’t have to watch stupid ads or wait for copyright notices. If I download legitimately then I’m told where and when I can play the movie, and I have to watch things that I don’t want to watch. Future proofing. If I download a movie in a fairly open format without DRM then I can be sure it will play in five to ten years time. In five to ten years time when iTunes is replaced by the Netflix SuperPlayer (or whatever), I bet that service won’t play my DRM-protected iTunes movies. Expense. Some media - such as box sets or audiobooks - are ridiculously expensive. Selection. My tastes are quite mainstream, but whenever I start veering towards a niche, often the legal selections just don’t cut it.

The entertainment industry is stuck in a rut

The way we consume media has changed. We don’t want to buy an album a year at a quarter of a month’s salary, we want lots of media, all of the time - and a good segment of society is willing to pay for it. The ones that aren’t willing, probably wouldn’t even if they couldn’t get it illegally.

Chasing pirates is not the answer

When the entertainment industry shut down the pirate websites, the pirates went to Napster. When the industry shut down Napster, the pirates went to BitTorrent. As the industry is cracking down on BitTorrent, pirates are looking towards secure P2P.

Secure P2P is going to be very, very hard to deal with.

Focus on making money, not chasing losses

The music industry needs to focus on marketing to the people that pay, and making their lives easier. Stop worrying about the RPU, focus on the lifetime value of a customer, and getting as much out of them as possible. How? By giving them what they want.

How much has piracy increased since iTunes released DRM-free music? Not much. How many movies are pirated and distributed online as soon as they’re released, regardless of DRM? All of them.

Stop penalizing your customers. Giving your customers a harder time than the free alternatives is the wrong way to go. The customer experience should be better and easier when we pay. We’re paying for convenience, and certainly not for restrictions and hassle.

You’re almost there…

Take those lawyers off the court cases, stop bleating at the World Copyright Summit, and put your admin teams onto getting me a better selection, by making partnerships with other companies and putting distribution deals in place around the globe. Give me even more to consume, make it easier for me to do so, and reward me for buying from you.

If you do that then I promise I’ll buy more and spend more than you’ve ever dreamed possible. And I won’t be alone. You’ll still have pirates, but you’ll gain more and more happy customers every day. And they’ll keep coming back, because you’ll be the quickest, easiest and most reliable way to consume a great product.