CHINA / National

Clicks drive boom in legal music downloads
By Joy Lu (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-21 06:11

Data from the IFPI, which represents the international music industry, shows that online and mobile music split the revenue equally; iTunes took the lion's share of online music downloads 86 per cent.

But can iTunes' success be reproduced on the mainland?

Digital music has far outstripped traditional media in sales on the mainland, recording a volume of 3.6 billion yuan (US$450 million) last year.

The highest sales volume for CDs, on the other hand, was recorded in 2003, totalling 2.7 billion yuan (US$337 million), said Liu Guoxiong, president of the China Audio-Video Association in Beijing.

However almost 99 per cent of digital sales are mobile ring tone downloads.

A study by the consultancy ChinaLabs in Beijing shows the mainland has many copyright-conscious people. More than 80 per cent of the respondents to the survey said IPR protection was important, with 13.5 per cent rating it "very important" and more than 60 per cent saying they're ready to pay for copyrighted music.

"People want to enjoy music, but it's not enjoyment when you click one empty link after another," said Ken Cheung, vice-president of New Media and Business Development for Warner Music Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. "... I do believe people are willing to pay for music downloads that are convenient, reliable and safe," he said.

But buying songs from the mainland's legal music websites is not that convenient. In the ChinaLabs' study, people said the hassles of handling the format and paying the charges were the top turnoff of copyright music websites, followed by the high price.

To prevent unauthorized copying, legal music downloads are encrypted, often with Microsoft's DRM (digital rights management) technology. Most people's MP3 players, however, do not support DRM, meaning customers can play the downloaded music only on their computers.

"I admit this is an obstacle, but this is conquerable," Cheung said.

Huaqi, for example, is embedding its MP3 player with DRM technology in a bid to imitate the synergy between iTunes and iPod. And soon the MP3 player industry will wake up to the new trend, says Orca Digital Chief Executive Officer Chen Ge.
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