Despite the doom and gloom at Madster, new research from Microsoft says that the record industry’s attempts to stop the swapping of pop music online won’t work.
The research says that the steady spread of file-swapping systems and improvements in their organisation will eventually make them impossible to shut down. Meanwhile the gradual spread of CD and DVD burners will help thwart any attempts to control what the public can do with the music they buy.
While they noted the success of the industry’s campaign against Napster and its more high profile clones they argue that an increase of swapping between private individuals (especially as broadband becomes the norm) will ensure music downloads survive.
They were also dismissive of the industry’s attempts to develop pirate-proof technology. They pointed out there were always technical flaws in these systems and that, so far, all of them have been defeated.
The paper's researchers emphasise that it represents their opinions rather than those of Microsoft, but their conclusions are likely to make uncomfortable reading for record labels. Once again it seems that long term record labels need to find new income streams other than simple record sales.