The IFPI has emphatically noted today that revenue from legal music sales in Sweden has jumped 18 percent since February, thanks to the strong effort in the nation to crackdown on piracy and the shut down of the admins of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay.
Physical media sales jumped 9 percent in the reported period and digital sales increased 80 percent.
IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy added (via The Guardian): “The increase in sales in Sweden, set against the backdrop of innovative new digital services and tighter copyright laws, is encouraging.It is too early to say if Sweden has permanently turned a corner, but we hope that users there will permanently switch from unlicensed filesharing networks that give nothing back to the music community to great value legal services whose operators recognize continuous investment is needed to discover and promote the talent of tomorrow.“
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Virgin Media, the large cable TV operator and music store chain has announced an unlimited music download subscription service with Universal today, designed to allow all Virgin broadband users in the UK to stream or download as many Universal songs as they want, for a fee.
Of course, entertainment lawyers say the service will do nothing to stop global music piracy, which can amount to “millions in lost revenue” every year for the major labels. Many added that the 25 and under segment of the population will continue to pirate music, while this service may bring in user over the age of 30, who are less prone to unauthorized downloads.
Universal, the biggest major label in the world, includes such popular acts as U2, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Duffy, Kanye West and Akon.
Virgin adds it remains in talks with other labels in an effort to bring more artists into the service.
The downloadable songs will be in DRM-free MP3 and will be available “later” this year.
IFPI Chairman John Kennedy adds of the deal: “It epitomizes the way in which the music business is adapting to the digital world, embracing new business models and responding to the changing needs of consumers,” Kennedy said of the new service.
“It also marks new ground in ISPs’ willingness to take steps to protect copyrighted content on their networks, and that sets a very encouraging example to the whole industry.”
Virgin also added: “We expect the deal will drive a material reduction in the unauthorized distribution of its repertoire across Virgin Media’s network.”
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Last month the French National Assembly surprisingly shot down the extremely controversial ‘three strikes’ laws which would disconnect alleged pirates from the Internet after two warnings.
This week however, the legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been passed by the Assembly, putting the laws in the hands of the Senate after over a year of debate.
The bill, dubbed The Creation and Internet bill, passed 296 to 233 and will now head to the Senate on Wednesday for final approval.
The three strikes laws would work as follows: A new regulatory body would send alleged pirates a warning e-mail, then a written letter, and finally cut them off the Internet for one year for a third offense.
Critics of the bill have warned that the bill may lead to innocent people being punished, if their computers or networks are hacked.
The socialist Patrick Bloche adds that the bill is “dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens”.
John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, applauded the move, adding that the bill is “an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France”.
