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The explosion
of debate about how the music industry will adapt to new technology,
and MP3 and Napster in particular, can seem baffling to the uninitiated.
It doesn't need to be. The soon-to-be ubiquitous MP3 is a programme
that condenses music sound files, allowing them to be easily downloaded
from your computer. Napster meanwhile, is more radical, functioning
as a powerful search engine which can find and deliver any music
you want, for free.
Despite the
cutting-edge technology, however, the arguments over the arrival
of MP3s and Napster go to the heart of a conflict about copyright
control that has existed for years. Reclaiming music as public property
is nothing new. Decades before Napster, people were 'buying' LPs
from HMV before returning them, claiming they'd "got the wrong one"
(or was that just me?) How many of you, flying in the face of Simon
Bates' sincerest advice, even dared to break the law, and taped
songs off the radio? The principle of getting someone else's songs
for free - whether from the shop, the radio or the Internet - has
always been the same.
Yet the Internet
poses a more certain threat to the power of the music industry because
it is, by its very nature, much harder to regulate. A mechanism
such as Napster, which its makers claim is about promoting the work
of unsigned artists, rather than cashing in on stolen music, is
a genuinely liberating device.
Its alleged
misuse in allowing users to retrieve music 'owned' by other bands
or record companies has so far produced only fuzzy legal rulings,
and made corporate rockers such as Metallica look more like selfish
control freaks than slighted artists. But the music industry's fight-back
is increasingly visible on the net, with an upsurge in soulless,
reflexively credit-card-friendly official sites. In response, independent
record companies and bands are championing Napster as the sign of
a liberated future.
So what happens
next? Music corporations will increasingly try to cordon off the
accessibility of music on the net, which will only serve to stoke
up the pro-Napster movement. An industry which presents itself as
encouraging creativity and choice is intimidated by this new technology's
potential to break the limits on its audience's freedom.
Record sales
are not astronomically high. People who buy records will continue
to buy records. Entrenched business - whether publishing, computer
games or music - deserves to have its vested interests questioned.
The Internet is finally allowing this to happen, and the music business
will have to change if it is not to be overtaken by the public's
simple urge to exercise their available freedom.
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