Thousands of jobs at risk from Net piracy, music industry warns

Leyla Linton
Thursday 11 July 2002 00:00 BST
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The "music for free" culture is putting thousands of jobs in Europe at risk, the recording industry warned yesterday.

Downloading music from the internet has become so common it is seriously affecting CD sales – which dropped worldwide by 5 per cent in 2001 from the previous year.

In some European countries the fall is bigger. In Denmark, sales are 20 per cent down. Three million more people are using unauthorised music files on the internet now than at the height of the Napster illegal service, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) claims.

The IFPI, which represents the record industry worldwide, urged the European Commission yesterday to tighten laws on internet piracy. It also wants the EU to cut VAT on music. Jay Berman, the IFPI chairman, said: "Music for free may sound attractive but when it is taken without the permission of artists it comes at a high price. It means less new music, fewer new artists, less choice, thousands fewer jobs and a poorer European culture.''

The French musician and composer Jean Michel Jarre said: "Governments can help support European music by promoting public awareness that when people take music that doesn't belong to them they undermine the future of those very artists whose work they enjoy.''

Jarre was speaking as artists gathered for the fourth IFPI Platinum Europe awards, which honour musicians who have sold one million or more albums in Europe.

At the awards, Neil Kinnock, the European Commission vice-president, also presented Luciano Pavarotti and Bob Geldof with special awards for their contribution to music.

Mr Berman said music sales high enough to qualify for the Platinum Europe awards might be a thing of the past if internet piracy continued. He said that in 2000 seven artists sold more than five million albums in Europe but no one had achieved that last year and no one so far this year.

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