In China, 99% of Digital Tracks are Pirated

Havocscope tipped us off to this surprising Bloomberg story, which discusses China's massive problem with unlicensed and pirated music on the web, which amounts to 99% of all digital tracks in that country. That statistic was provided by a study from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which cites China as the biggest source of illegal downloads.

Speaking at a Jan. 27 conference at the Midem music industry meeting in Cannes, France, deputy director of the ministry's market department, Zhang Xin Jian, said that the situation is "grave" and being given "great attention." China is expected to increase measures to curb piracy in the country.

Illegal downloads outnumber the legal mp3s by a factor of 20-to-1, the IFPI told the AP.

Besides cutting from the profit margin of record labels, the trickle down effects of piracy are beginning to be seen in music culture. Many experts argue that, with flailing sales and decreasing profits, record companies no longer have the desire--or money--to sign artists they are unsure about. As one music critic told me, major labels are less willing to "take a chance" on an act--thus the upsurge in music marketed to teens, the demographic who by all accounts spend a lot of their allowance on records. What do you think about this?

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