Music Industry Would Do Well to Follow Film Model

I agree with Jimmy Iovine’s criticisms of the music industry. However, his comparison to the film industry is wrong [“To This Veteran’s Ear, the Music Industry’s Timing Has Been Off,” The Biz Q&A;, July 17].

If anything, the film industry is precisely the example the music industry should follow. Despite some initial carping, the film industry has embraced new technology, especially home video, and it has done so while still managing to pay royalties to all appropriate parties.

Even though the film industry is currently suing with regard to the use and distribution of DeCSS [Decode Content Scrambling System] code, the fact is pirating of films, at least by the home user, doesn’t make much sense.

Assuming a home user had a DVD recorder, a blank consumer DVD costs between $30 and $50. At a time when you can rent a film or see one on cable or pay TV for a few dollars, even buying pirated tapes doesn’t make sense.

To be sure, there are examples of retailers, usually independents or unwitting chains, that have made or purchased pirated copies. However, most pirating of films goes on during their release to theaters when they are not available to the public any other way.

It’s no small coincidence the largest market in the world for pirated copies of film is China, where access to U.S. film is limited.

This simply is not the same as the situation in the music industry. Where film is readily available, consumer piracy is rare. But here we are in the U.S. with mass merchants selling CDs and consumer piracy a growing problem.

Why? The recording industry blocks retailers from competing on price or makes it difficult for them to do so. This and high wholesale prices to retailers have kept prices artificially high. Consumers have been complaining for years and the industry has done nothing.

Unlike film, where a consumer can watch the product at home at a reasonable price, consumers must continue to pay inflated prices for CDs, very little of which is returned to the artists, the people most responsible for making the music.

MICHAEL SOLOMON

West Los Angeles

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The one angle I never hear concerning the Napster controversy is that of pure economics. With CD prices at $16.99 per unit, who can blame people for trying to undercut this sheer greed? Some of these “starving” artists should be ashamed to talk about how we are taking food from their children’s plates when their concert ticket prices and CDs are simply beyond the reach of many people.

I’m sure the solution to this problem will be that services like Napster will eventually have to charge individual users for a subscription to cover licensing. However, with music sales at all-time highs, I wonder if we are simply talking about making the 350-pound gorilla into a 400-pound gorilla?

DAVID BLAIR

San Antonio