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Musicmetric says closing the release window will deliver – but now what about inconsistent release dates worldwide?

By | Published on Tuesday 18 January 2011

Musicmetric

London-based music analytics company Musicmetric yesterday predicted that those previously reported plans by the UK divisions of Universal Music and Sony Music to close the so called ‘release window’ will result in a fall in illegal file-sharing, though added that inconsistent release dates around the world also resulted in lost sales to piracy because of the impatient nature of young consumers.

As previously reported, the two major record companies yesterday gave way to pressure that has been mounting from various quarters in the music industry for some time to make new singles available for sale via download stores on the same day they are serviced to radio stations.

Although this messes with the traditional record company marketing approach, where by you build hype over a number of weeks to maximise first week sales and therefore chart position, it means that impatient young music fans will be able to buy new tracks as soon as they hear them on the radio. It’s been suggested that one reason young music consumers steal new tracks from file-sharing networks is because when a new song first gets airplay it’s not available to buy from any legit download stores. Closing the release window will overcome this issue and, the argument goes, might turn those illegal file-sharers into legit customers.

Musicmetric yesterday said that its regular tracking of BitTorrent file-sharing backed up this theory, meaning that Universal and Sony’s decision to close the release window should deliver tangible results. However, the company added, music fans don’t just experience new music via radio and TV stations in their own countries any more, and are also affected by contacts on social networks around the world.

This means that if a record is released in one territory earlier than another, file-sharing is likely to occur in the market with the later release date. This is a problem, of course, that affects all content industries, and arguably the gaming, TV and film sectors more so, where the staggering of releases around the world is generally more common and more severe.

Musicmetric’s Chairman, Jeremy Silver, probably better known for his work with the Featured Artists Coalition, told CMU: “It is clear that as consumers have changed their behaviour dramatically over the last ten years, record companies need to change their release practices to match. Once consumers hear a song they want to add it to their collection. This means all content owners need to consider simultaneous global release dates in order not to lose sales”.

In related news, if you were wondering if yesterday’s announcement about simultaneous airplay and digital release dates applied to streaming services like Spotify and We7 as well as download stores like iTunes, well it seemingly does. Wired asked that very question of Universal, a spokesperson for which said “[the new policy] will be across the board – streaming and download”.



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