Digital downloads feature – ATM 2004

Digital downloads feature – Published in ATM Magazine, 2004

The revolution will not be digitised… until now!

In the last century alone the world of music has witnessed no less than three major revolutions, each impacting on the way we consume music, the way it spreads and is recorded. And now at the dawn of a new century yet another revolution has engulfed the music world but this one has the potential to truly change the landscape of modern music like never before. The revolutions in question involve music formats. First we had vinyl, which has so far survived all the following revolutions and claims of its death. Then we had tapes which didn’t survive so well. And then came CDs with people claiming they would once and for all kill all other formats. While not entirely true, CDs have played a big part in helping eradicate tapes and usher in the digital revolution. By the end of the century CDs had become the major format on which music is sold and consumed, alongside newer digital formats like DVD. Yet the foretold revolution was still waiting to happen: vinyl sales were on the up at the turn of the century, the turntable constantly outsold the guitar in most developed countries and DJs had never been so popular. The eternal death of analogue technologies is nowhere to be seen yet their continued existence have not hindered the progression and rise of digital technologies, and somehow a happy medium between both has installed itself since the late 90s. But it looks like all this could change…

Enter mp3s and the new generation of digital technologies and formats. These new formats have been able to impact on music and the industry as a whole with the help of the Internet and the rise of mp3 players such as Apple’s Ipod. This second digital revolution really started attracting everyone’s attention thanks to one computer program that used a fairly new system entitled P2P (Peer to Peer) and went by the name of Napster. Napster took the world by storm in the late 90s by letting anyone with a computer, internet connection and some common sense connect to a huge worldwide network of music enthusiasts and start swapping music anonymously. But as with all revolutions things had to come to an end when the major music companies realised that they were losing some serious money and had to be seen to do something about this new form of ‘theft’ and ‘copyright violation’ (the freely swapped music wasn’t technically ‘free’ you see). Napster was shut down in 2002 but not before spawning massive communities who rallied under new programs and aliases to continue to share music freely and stick two fingers up at the music industry. Whilst the pros and cons of P2P software and communities can be debated ad-nauseam what really mattered was that Napster and its followers showed the music industry that they had missed their chance to cash in on the new digital revolution and that people weren’t going to let such freedom and choice go so easily. Something had to done, yet it has taken nearly 5 years for anyone to do something about it. While not entirely the monster it’s been claimed to be, online music piracy has created many problems for people further along down the chain of the industry. The majors are not the victims they’d like us to believe but the small independent labels and their artists are. If we look at the dance music industry, and dnb in particular, it’s true that online piracy has created many problems and affected the sales of most labels (sales figures for dance music worldwide have been down for the last few years). Amongst the problems created is the fact that a whole generation of listeners and buyers of dnb have become used to not having to pay for the music they like. Add to that the growing amount of digital DJs who use CDs and mp3s instead of vinyl and you can see how instead of helping promote the music (which it has in ways) online sharing has only made it harder for most dnb professionals to go about their business. As Breakbeat Kaos label head Fresh put it to us recently “People need to realise that money for music is worth it at the end. [Piracy] is devaluing the whole buying process and creates a loss of respect of sorts from the buying public for the music. You can’t just scrounge off the music and expect it to be fine.”

So how does the scene get itself out of such a situation and make it better for both the professionals and the fans? Well following the attempts by the majors at creating legal download sites to rival illegal communities, such as Apple’s iTunes store, the dance music industry has taken it into its own hands to provide the buying public with legal services where they can purchase all the latest tracks for nominal fees. Legal sites offer many advantages over illegal communities: the money you spend goes directly to the label and artists, the quality is great and format choices are possible, other peripheral services such as mixes, compilations, charts and more are on offer. And most important of all they help keep the scene so many people love alive. If early indications are anything to go by 2004 could prove to be the year that the dance music industry fights back. In dnb especially things have been moving fast since January and by year’s end the public will have a wide choice of outlets from where to purchase mp3s legally. Between specialised outlets, label shops and community services the choices are only going to get bigger and better.

Let’s take a look at what is on offer. From a specialised point of view the most interesting sites at the moment are Strictly Digital and Beatport. Both these sites are geared especially for dance music and already feature a good dose of dnb mp3s supplied by established labels. Scotland’s Nerve Productions, Cargo Industries and Hive’s Violence imprint have all been releasing their music through Beatport, and we’ve just found out that Breakbeat Kaos and DOA will also be releasing their catalogue through them. Strictly Digital already offers tracks from Defunked, Dread, Jerona Fruits and Nu Directions amongst others, and also offers added incentives such as exclusive tracks by artists signed to the labels, free bonus downloads and a loyalty scheme. They also both feature chart systems in much the same way HMV and Virgin do. What also makes these two sites interesting for dnb aficionados is that they both involve dnb professionals as part of their team with the UK based Strictly Digital headed by Nookie and the dnb division of US based Beatport headed by one half of D’Ecco and Sabotage. One last addition to the specialised sites is IMO Download which launches in September with the promise of 10,000 tracks available for download covering dnb, old school and more. On the label shops front the first to enter the mp3 market look set to be True Playaz, who are putting the finishing touches to their online shop. Once running it will offer all the vinyl and CD releases on mp3s. Pascal pointed out that “[what did] it for me was looking at p2p networks and seeing all my stuff on there and you can’t fight that. But you can offer people an alternative. With high quality mp3s you can make a difference. If there is no stopping it, then work with it.” And it’s only a matter of time before other leading labels follow suit. Lastly on the community side the first sign of activity comes from dnb arena who are also putting the final touches to their online store. It will sit nicely along the site’s vinyl shop and dnb arena’s now popular dub and singles sections where you can stream all the latest tracks.

Other important points are price and formats. Prices on all these sites are nominal, and well below the average price in stores. Average online price looks set to be around £1.50, varying from store to store with bonuses for multiple buys and in some instances cheaper prices for back catalogue items. The most important aspect of the price beyond the appeal to the customers is that by bypassing the production process required for any other musical format mp3s give the artists a much higher cut then they would normally receive. A single priced at £1.50 for each side will give the artist more money than a vinyl single priced at £7. Format wise, while the major companies such as Apple and Microsoft fight to corner the market by providing music that is playable only on their own player (some people never learn), online dance music shops all offer mp3s at high quality (from 192 to 320 kpbs, over twice the quality of CD) and in some instances also offer wavs and windows media files, all playable on a multitude of portable players. The issue of format is most important for the digital DJs who can choose what suits them best and benefit from a quality that has so far been totally uneven from the illegal communities.

So the digital revolution is well and truly underway and even if it will be some time before the legal sites overtake the illegal communities most people are hopeful that, as was the case the first time round with Napster, things will change for the better and the scene as a whole will soon benefit from more business and growing communities and networks that will relay illegal ones to the fringe. Another important factor is that by growing in strength and presence, legal download sites will also offer more opportunities for up and coming DJs, artists and producers to get their music out there and get paid for it, whilst making sure that quality control is high and that not just anyone releases their music onto the expecting public. While illegal communities have certainly created the space for people to share their own music with the world, the absence of any sort of quality control also has its drawback which can be eradicated by the overtake of legal services. The future is coming, maybe not today or tomorrow but soon things will change and those with an interest in the music better be ready for it.