The News hit yesterday that the UK would not force Internet service providers to pursue file sharers.
As the music industry steps up its fight against piracy, there has been many rumors of legislation in which case these pirates would be tracked down through their Internet provider.

Countries such as France are fighting hard against these pirates. However, David Lammy says that legislation would be far too complex. The BPI, who represent the UK music industry, are gunning towards a “Three strikes, you’re outta here” policy, in which case offenders are sent warning letters. Persistent offenders could be potentially thrown off of their Internet providers. Though some ISP’s, mostly Virgin Media, had sent out initial warning letters, the rest of this policy by BPI has yet to take hold.

Will Canada make another attempt to adopt legislation against downloaders?
Let’s hope never, because DRM has been lifted, and it’s really time for the war against piracy to be over! It hasn’t worked, and it won’t start working now. Let the music be free! Because sharing is the new way for artists to promote their music.

Apple Inc. recently announced that it will be removing digital rights management (DRM) technology from most of the music it sells on iTunes, an action that will surely prove detrimental for the music industry giants who have long been advocating the technology to prevent illegal file sharing.

The technology prevented iTunes-purchased music from being used on non-Apple devices, or shared with others and played computers other than the one it was purchased on.

Although all four major record labels finally approved the move – almost two years since Apple CEO Steve Jobs first proposed the idea – experts are hailing it as the end to control over how consumers purchase and enjoy their music.

According to Michael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s renowned professor of Internet law and e-commerce, “what it does show is that the long-time strategy of locks and lawsuits that the industry adopted several years ago has been terminated, out of failure.”

For more details, see the story in the Globe and Mail.

Interesting how major labels only cease to employ ineffective strategies long after they have proven to be pointless despite the recommendation of industry leaders and futurists! Would you want to invest your career and future with organizations like that?

In other Apple news, Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO for a few months due to serious health problems. We’re you’ve committed to taking care of yourself Steve, and hope for the best.

And, as Pro Soul blog readers may have guessed… it was free!

Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV was made available under a Creative Commons license, and earned more than $1.6 million in revenue – in the first week alone.  It beat out a host of music heavyweights including Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie.

Creative Commons encourages creators to share their work with others, at no charge, so as “to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content)”.  It explains that although fans could have easily downloaded the album from any file sharing network – legally – they chose to support NIN by purchasing the MP3s directly from the artist.

The Creative Commons blog itself put it best:

“The next time someone tries to convince you that releasing music under CC will cannibalize digital sales, remember that Ghosts I-IV broke that rule, and point them here.”

Just another sign of the changing times in the music industry…

At Pro Soul, we like to think that we’re trailblazers of sort, offering innovative solutions to artists who are committed to their fans and to their music.  But we can’t take all the credit for this original thought; we get advice and ideas from those who have proven that they know where things are going. There’s a handful of music industry experts who have long been preaching what it takes to be successful in the industry today. 

One such insider is Bob Lefsetz, whose illustrious career in the entertainment industry – and in music in particular – is unparalleled.  Lefsetz draws on his experience and insights in his blog, the Lefsetz Letter, which explores key issues affecting the music industry today.  We love his outspoken approach to sharing his views on everything from P2P file sharing to the decline in major labels.

Lefsetz and his forward-thinking peers have foreseen the drastic changes in the music industry and have been more than willing to challenge conventional “wisdom” (a term we use loosely here).  In a recent post, entitled “The Tribe“, Lefsetz emphasizes the importance of catering to fans – not the major labels, not the sponsors, not the radio stations.

While this isn’t exactly what traditional record labels would want to hear, Pro Soul is ecstatic – because we’re not your traditional record label.  We don’t take from artists what belongs to them – rights to their music, control over their career, profits from their hard work. We help them find the right audience for their music, not the other way around. Unlike other labels, we don’t change our artists according to advertising demographics.

Lefsetz offers this advice for artists trying to navigate the industry and the multitude of options available today: “If it doesn’t bring people closer, if it doesn’t satiate and inspire your fans, forget about it.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.