A Sad Day In The U.k
The last remnants of HMV are in trouble in the United Kingdom according to Sky News, a year and a half after closing in Canada.
Founded in 1921 in London, this music store flourished and became Britain’s largest music retailer until running into financial issues in 2010 due to the shift towards digital music and film, which resulted in the closure of the World’s Largest Music Store on Oxford Street on January 14th, 2014 and Irish chain in August 2016.
Today the chain has entered administration for the second time since January 5th, 2011 and at risk are 130 stores and 2200 employees.
Another Cash Grab?
The Copyright Act is being reviewed by the Canadian Government and some Canadians are of course concerned that this will include an extension of private copying levies to cell phones and the possibility of websites being blocked for minor copyright violations.
Unfortunately the government has been pretty quiet about this since their December 17th, 2017 press release and I didn’t want to speculate. But a line in the sand needs to be drawn, regardless of what is and isn’t being considered in the closed door meetings they might be having with foreign lobbyists.
I don’t think cell phones should be subject to the private copying levy because streaming is the preferred method of obtaining music on this device according to Music Canada, some customers listening to radio on these devices. And the possibility of having my site blocked because I accidentally linked a site that decided to offer pirated music is just absurd but these kind of proposals have been made in other countries.
This isn’t about giving artists more of their dues but giving labels more money. And streaming is where the improvements are needed when it comes to royalties for artists, so I see no point in levying cell phone storage.
The Copyright Board proposed levying hard drives and microSD memory cards in 2014 but that propose was rejected because a “recording audio medium” is defined by Part VIII, Section 79 of the Copyright Act as “a recording medium, regardless of its material form, onto which a sound recording may be reproduced and that is of a kind ordinarily used by individual consumers for that purpose”.
A cell phone’s primary function is communication, not the receipt, storage and playback of music. And this device is also used to take and view photographs and videos.
It makes no sense to levy this device for royalties for music and nothing else. And this slippery slope is not advantageous for consumers, who would object to paying levies for storing photographs, video and games on their new smartphone, or tablet.
I don’t like being gouged on data fees so I don’t listen to music, watch videos or play video games on mine now. And I seriously doubt i’d enjoy paying more for a newer model, for services I wouldn’t use.
Do we really want to burden the cell phone industry with this? And when it comes to blocking, this can be bypassed with Virtual Private Network services, so is the government going to go after those as well in the name of copyright?
VPNs are used by people who travel and use public wi-fi, for security reasons. Do we really want to loose access to this service over piracy? When a sharp decline in music piracy was observed in 2017 by Music Canada?
A form has been made available by Open Media to provide comments to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on these issues.
Please submit this form and share this link and your opinions on social media before September 17th, 2018. Thank you.
Update – Response on Netflix/Internet Tax
From my local Member of Parliament, Karen McCrimmon (Dated June 13th, 2018) :
“Hello Rob,
Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas with me.
Our government understands the importance of supporting our artists and creators. We also know that the way Canadians access content is changing. That’s why we have made historic investments of $3.2 billion, to support our artists and creators. It’s also why we will be modernizing our laws and programs to better support our artists in the digital era.
Netflix’s investment is a part of the transition. It secures 5 years of investments for our creators, as we modernize our laws and programs.
We, as a government have decided not to introduce a Netflix tax because we don’t want to raises taxes on the middle class, we want to lower them. We will always look at ways to strike the balance between a fair tax system and the investments we need in our culture, but in doing so, we’re not going to be raising taxes on the middle class through an internet broadband tax.
I will share your ideas with my fellow colleagues, including the Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau.
Thank your again for your engagement as a constituent.
Kind regards,
Karen”
I had suggested that if taxes on streaming services are absolutely necessary that they consider forwarding a portion of the federal taxes collected from these services to Canadian Content initiatives, instead of introducing an independent levy for that purpose.
As i’ve mentioned in a previous entry, these services will be taxed on New Years Day in Quebec and the Canadian Radio & Telecommunication Commission had made a proposal of their on in regards to levy to fund Canadian Content.
The publics views have been made clear by a February 2017 poll conducted by Innovative Research Group earlier in 2017. But I had thought to send my opinion and suggestions to my local MP and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly in response to the CRTC’s recent proposal.
If you wish to contact your local Member of Parliament on this issue, you can do so via the MP database by clicking here.
I will of course update this blog if the situation changes.
Thank you.
Global Music Report Released
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry released their global music report last Thursday and sales have gone up by 8.1% because of streaming, which had become more popular;Streaming revenues grew by 41% worldwide.
Click here for a link to the official IFPI blog entry on the “State Of The Industry” report.
Did You Miss Record Store Day?
Some of the participating retailers could still have some items on sale for the weekend. And deals can also be found at Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Booksamillion.com and Records By Mail.
Apple Ending Music Downloads?
Since mid-March there have been rumours that Apple may be ending music downloads on March 31st, 2019 to promote their Music Streaming services. But contradictory statements have been issued so I don’t personally believe Apple would shut down such a lucrative service.
Yes, the streaming service has become quite popular with iPhone users and streaming accounted for 65% of the music sales in 2017 according to the Recording Industry Association of America. But digital downloads still accounted for 15% of these sales last year, regardless of their 25% reduction in sales from the previous year and iTunes retains a good percentage of these sales.
I support artists by buying music and music video downloads from iTunes, Google Play and CD Baby because artists generally get more royalties from these download services than their streaming counterpart, although it should be noted that SOCAN did confirm a hike in streaming royalties in their 2016 annual report.
I don’t own an iPhone and I am not interested in owning one, preferring to listen to my music on an older Sony digital music player instead of draining my Sony Xperia smartphone’s battery to listen to music. And iTunes has been my primary source of music since Puretracks closed, on both the Windows and Apple operating systems, so i’m hoping they will continue the service because I am not that interested in streaming services.
Although I have installed Spotify and several other streaming services on my desktop and tablets, the vast majority of the music I listen to was copied off compact discs and I don’t want to need an internet connection to play my music.
I’m not willing to pay extra to listen to music I already paid for and I occasionally visit areas with little to no internet access so paid streaming is not the best option for me.
I guess we’ll see what they’re planning my March 31st, 2019 and I will definitely contact them with my concerns if they ever choose to bow out of music downloads.