Rockstars and piracy in Asia
I'm a huge fan of reality shows. The most recent one I've been
following is Rockstar INXS - the show which follows the super
80's Australian band, INXS, and their search for a new lead
singer.
If you haven't seen it, it's a great show, the music and
performances are incredible (blows American Idol or any Idol
show out of the water). The other great thing about this show is
that the voting (everyone gets to vote for their favourite
singer) let's people all over the world vote for their favourite
singer where most other shows restrict interactions to American
audiences only.
Of course, after each show is over, the music is available to
download from the MSN music site. So, after hearing some great
music, I quickly logged on and went straight to the MSN music
site and decided to PAY FOR the music downloads. I was more than
happy to contribute and give these deserving artists what they
deserved.
But guess what? The music downloads are only available to US
audiences! I quickly contacted MSN support, "Where can someone
outside of the US buy this music?" They quickly and politely
replied and said that it is presently only available to the US
market but music will be available in other markets later.
Later? How much later? The shows already over!
Look at iTunes, that's only available to US, Canada and the UK
as well. What about the rest of the world?
It's kind of strange when I hear complaints about the piracy
problem in Asia, not to say there isn't, but companies aren't
helping themselves if they don't make legitimate copies
available from the right channels. Where else are consumers
supposed to turn to if they have no legitimate outlet to buy
from?
Let's face it, CDs are so 90's. Not to mention expensive. Asia
is at the forefront of technology and mp3's are the format of
choice. So why aren't there more channels available to the Asian
markets?
So, what did I end up doing? I did what MSN support told me to
do, visit other regional MSN sites like Singapore and Australia
to see whether I could find the music there. I found music but
not the Rockstar songs from the show I was looking for. Getting
a little frustrated and agitated at the fact they really didn't
want to make money off me by making it EXTREMELY difficult for
me to buy from them.
After all this, there is a point I'm trying to make (actually
two points):
* I'm sure the artists and the producers of the show could have
made double, three times maybe even ten times the sales they
made if they made the song downloads available to the rest of
the world or at least to the other markets that the show was
playing in (i.e. Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong, etc) -
Lesson to be learned: Don't make it difficult for your customers
or potential customers to buy from you
* Piracy and intellectual property infringement IS a problem in
Asia. However, it could be less of a problem if companies would
understand that a normal person in Mumbai, Bangkok or Beijing
isn't going to pay (or afford to pay) US$20+ for a CD. On the
other hand US$0.99 per song download sounds reasonable and most
people could afford that, assuming they had internet access, but
without a reasonable access channel to these affordable
alternatives where else are they supposed to go to satisfy their
demand?