EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW PART 1 – Emerging markets are seen as huge areas of potential growth for
the music download industry. Piracy has slowed down some players, but digital distributor The Orchard has jumped in aggressivley cutting deals in Russia and then last month in China. The partner there is Top100.cn and CEO Gary Chen recently granted us an exclusive inteview:
HYPEBOT: Piracy is a problem for entertainment companies doing business in China and many other countries. How does your partnership address this concern?
CHEN: Actions, actions, actions ! how many labels and copyrights owners have taken actions to stop piracy in China for the past twenty years ? Talking is easy and cheap. I suggest following actions:
1. "Sue the bastard"(a quote). If you find your music pirated, you get to take actions. Otherwise, no one knows that thing belong to you. It is much easier to find out who infringed your rights on internet. There are many good lawyers who want to represent you in China. Last year, John Kennedy, Chairman of IFPI lead the lawsuit against the largest illegal music search and download engine company Baidu.com (a NASDAQ listed company). This is the first serious action taken by music industry in China. A highly respected action. IFPI also warned Yahoo who also offered illegal music search and download service in China.
2. Find a good partner in China and make your music available in legit music service as soon as possible.
3. Be flexible. For an example, why not combine legal digital music retail business with legal advertising backed music service as a temporary solution to fight piracy and increase the market share of legit music sales ?
Why not make legit music available in all formats including DRM10, OMA1, OMA2, MP3, WMA, etc and make music buyers life easier especially in China?
Part II On Monday.
