Online Music
By David Fishman

This week I walked into a BestBuy, Staples, a local music store, and the MAC store. I also visited various P2P sites, such as the well-known IMESH and OD2 applications and of course itunes. I was also able to speak with Mr. Ebbin the producer of the passed two Bon Jovi albums. According to him, the music world has become revolutionized and the bottom line for artists like Bon Jovi and the music industry is that their income has become significantly smaller since the P2P revolution. Many users of non-legal P2P applications ask, what's so great about the 70 million or so downloads Apple says iTunes managed in more than a year, when compared to the one billion (at a conservative estimate) that happen on the peer-to-peer networks every month? The "one billion" figure, which comes from industry observer Big Champagne, helps make the point that downloads from iTunes and the other online music stores supplied by the Big Five record labels still have a great deal of downloads to catch up on to help reclaim the music industry from the free downloads.

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But it does raise a question about how many unique songs are available on peer-to-peer networks. So I got in touch with Big Champagne ceo Eric Garland, who had this to say:

"Let's look just at titles - the variety of music, with no consideration of the popularity of one title over another," said Garland. "Virtually every title that has ever been popular with any audience, no matter how small, is available at one time or another on P2P networks."

He went on to say, "Now, while the volume of files (and interest) is concentrated on a few hundred thousand top titles - many of which are for sale online, and many of which (Beatles, Madonna, Led Zep, and so forth) are not - the available title library on a P2P absolutely dwarfs the paid offerings. In fact, the variety of titles is limited only by the imaginations of every one of the tens of millions of P2P users."

Garland suggested I demonstrate the disparity for myself by searching for any popular artist on a P2P network. "As I type this, I'm searching for 'Coldplay' and 'Sheryl Crow' (to pick a couple of iTunes user faves)," he said. "The results include at least as many 'rare' offerings - unreleased, live, b-side, outtakes – along with legitimately-released studio tracks."

So I fired up WinMX (the new beta), and he was right - in spades. "Just amplify this phenomenon by every artist you've ever seen on P2P networks and you start to appreciate the challenge," Garland went on. "The paid services simply can't offer 'everything' an artist records. P2P networks make a pretty good run at it."

The titles on even the best licensed services "constitute a small fraction of what's on P2P networks," Garland concluded.  

However, while the amount of music available is not even close between P2P and legal internet music retailers, the real problem is that musicians and the music industry that depends on sales of their music for a livelihood are feeling the pain caused by the free P2P networks..

Clearly itunes in its first year has become a huge success. Over one million downloads in the inception of a new product is amazing work. The value offer of an itunes program or paid downloads is found in convenience and knowledge. A consumer knows they will receive an entire song when they download, they can also be sure of the quality. While some claim the quality is not as good as off a CD, certainly it is clear without skips etc.. itunes also brings a wealth of tools to someone trying to share music with a few friends and organize their music on any application on their desktop.

Perhaps the most important change in the P2P vs. a paid application like itunes is the music player. Itunes developed the ipod that interfaces seamlessly with the music on itunes. While some formats on a P2P application will not be able to be played on an iPod. Perhaps even more telling is that the ease of use for saving music on a desktop and then playing it anywhere you want is a positive result of the itunes revolution and ipod inclusion.

No matter which side of this debate you fall on, it is important to understand both sides clearly. The music industry has often hurt musicians by owning their music. However, a free P2P application does not necessarily solve that problem. While a paid service begins to solve it, it does not allow for music lovers to find everything they desire to listen to all of the time. The future is hopefully getting brighter for musicians of all kinds and music lovers alike.

David Fishman
dfishman@ileadmedia.com