Can Global Release Day Reduce Piracy?

Abstract

IntroductionPrior to July 10, 2015, new music recordings were released on different days in different countries around the world. On February 26, 2015, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced the official acceptance of the global release day concept meaning that new releases from acts associated with the IFPI would be released on Fridays in all countries involved with the IFPI around the world.1 The IFPI believes that this concept will reduce the risk of piracy, which implies that the amount of pirating activity will also decrease. This paper addresses the question of whether or not global release day could decrease piracy.Although it can be argued to the contrary, I do not believe global release day will have a significant impact on lowering piracy. Factors including consumer behavior, the convenience of piracy, time zones, and the publicly known release dates for albums are enough to encourage piracy even with global release day. After reviewing the existing literature, I will explain what global release day is, its relevance to society, why it was enacted, and what characteristics of pirating it is trying to fight. Then I will present my argument as to why global release day will not reduce piracy, as well some possible arguments in support of a global release day, including information as to why global release day may be beneficial whether it will reduce piracy or not.Literature ReviewLittle research has been conducted on the possible effectiveness of global release day because the concept was initiated less than a year before the publication of this article. Still, there is some reasonable speculation about the possible effects as well as some important articles about the motives of those who pirate music who may be affected by global release day. In February 2015, the IFPI, which according to the organization's website consists of about 1,300 members from over sixty countries, officially announced that after months of discussion global release day will happen starting July 10, 2015. Hannah Karp, a journalist at The Wall Street Journal who specializes in writing articles on the music industry, has written about the tension between different parties in the debate as to whether or not global release day will be effective in its purpose to increase music sales and better the music purchasing process.2 Her articles have addressed both the positive and negative effects global release day could have on sales, but they do not address the effects it will have on piracy. This paper, on the other hand, will be one of the first to focus heavily on how global release day could affect piracy.In the music industry, releasing music unexpectedly is another album-releasing trend becoming more common. Journalists have taken notice of this. For example, in an article for Vulture.com, Lauretta Charlton, a journalist who focuses her writing on music, wrote about whether or not album release dates are even necessary. The article explores the possible strategy of not publicizing music releases in order to limit the opportunities for music to leak and for consumers to pirate it before the music is legally released.3 By contrast, my paper further explores the importance of not publicizing a release date for new music in order for global release day to be successful in reducing piracy.Several articles have been written about various forms of piracy and the ways in which it occurs. Why consumers pirate is one of these subtop- ics that multiple authors have written about and a topic that is used in my argument as well. For example, Daniel Castro (a policy analyst), Richard Bennett (a network engineer), and Scott Andes (also a policy analyst), all worked for the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF). They wrote an article about ways to reduce piracy and explanations as to why it occurs, citing reasons such as minimal risk of being caught and the little effort needed to be able to pirate music that is, and is not, available in their market yet. …