The IFPI, or International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or “the global RIAA,” has released their 2012 Digital Music Report and it is, as usual, a collection of absolutely unintentional comic gems.
As you might expect from a company whose very name is outdated, their understanding of piracy and technology is a little, ah, hazy. For example:
With a healthy 8 percent increase in our digital revenues in 2011 – the first time the annual growth rate has risen since records began in 2004 – some might feel tempted to say that a troubled era for the music industry is coming to an end. Such complacency now, however, would be a great mistake.
So, wait, wait, wait. After years, years, of griping that technology is murdering your billion dollar industry and that the Googles Took Your Moneys, you see a reversal in digital sales that means you’re turning a profit again, and it’s still not enough?
Believe it or not, it gets better:
The result of this activity is effectively a rigged music market. Legal services, whatever their model, incur the business costs of being authorised and paying rights owners, as well as investments to develop secure payment methods and good quality services. This model is unsustainable when facing competition from infringing services that have greatly reduced costs and circumvent the normal rules of commercial business. A commercially sustainable digital music sector needs an environment in which the industry can effectively enforce its rights.
Yeah, Apple is bleeding from piracy. Apple is bleeding so, so badly from piracy. And Amazon! Amazon is battered in the gutter!
WON’T ANYBODY THINK OF THE POOR PROFIT-CRANKING MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS?
In all seriousness, while this isn’t nearly as bad as the MPAA’s whiny little press release we told you about, it does display a worrying refusal by the IFPI to accept that they already have the tools they need, even when they acknowledge that, holy crap, this law enforcement stuff really works on actual criminals, breaking actual laws!
We don’t think artists should be ripped off, but we also don’t think it’s the Internet’s fault that a bloated, complacent industry has to adjust to a new, less profitable reality where technology is always ahead of them.
(Image via glenn~ on Flickr)