back to article Music-mad Brits drive up hardware sales too – claims BPI

Amazingly, 12 per cent of British people watching TV are listening to music from another source as they watch. Or maybe that isn’t so amazing. Maybe you need to play Napalm Death while watching The X Factor - and who could blame you? Tech-mad Brits also spend more on music per head than the G7 average - but which drives which …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    But...but...but......

    ...I thought piracy was destroying music sale, because as we are so often told, that 13 year old with 10 thousand titles on their pc would have otherwise paid £10,000 for them.

    1. Psyx

      Re: But...but...but......

      "...I thought piracy was destroying music sale..."

      The numbers are showing that, though: Italians like music, but nobody buys kosha music in Italy, and the figures bear witness to it.

  2. Crisp

    "Copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD"

    I thought we already had that? Why on earth would there be legislation making backups illegal?

    1. rob1n

      Re: "Copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD"

      No, we've never had that in the UK. There's just been an unwritten agreement (I think the police may even have gone as far as to actually state it) that, while technically illegal, nobody would be arrested/prosecuted for it.

    2. Anna Logg

      Re: "Copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD"

      Nope;until now there has been no legal right in the UK to create a backup copy of a music CD you own, unlike computer software on CD-ROM.

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: "Copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD"

        You had no automatic right to make back-up copy of a software CD-ROM, but usually the EULA gives you the permission you need.

    3. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: "Copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD"

      In the UK, there was no exemption for media conversion (backup), but it was commonly accepted that there was no point in trying to prosecute someone for copying their LPs to cassette for use in the car.

      Nothing in the digital age had changed that until this recent change, so technically it was still against copyright law, and this included ripping CDs for use in an MP3 player or computer. There is no fair-use provision in UK copyright legislation.

      There had been various suggestions about formalising exceptions, but none had made it into an amendment to the copyright legislation until now.

  3. ravenviz Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Music companies

    can FRO, they're just in it for the money. The progressive rock scene in the UK has been crowdfunding, self promoting and distributing for years. Smaller bands these days don't make money out of music sales anyway, it's the touring and merchandise, provided the venues themselves aren't asking too much of a cut of what they think they 'deserve' for kindly hosting your band and fans. Gits.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: they're just in it for the money

      Companies just in it for the money you say? Wow, every day's a school day!

  4. Anonymous Blowhard

    "As of yesterday, individual punters in the UK will get a copyright exception allowing them to make a private copy of a music CD, a privilege permitted by the EU."

    Bloody interfering Brussels bureaucrats, taking away our sovereign rights not to be able to do something!

  5. Fihart

    TV as background

    How crap does a telly program have to be that viewers are listening to music while it's on.

    Of course these could be the kind who just have the set on as company.

    1. P. Lee

      Re: TV as background

      > How crap does a telly program have to be that viewers are listening to music while it's on?

      Well my wife plays sudoku on her phone while "watching" (i.e. listening) to the TV. Then again, you don't really need eyes for yet another episode of NCIS.

      1. Aulty

        Re: TV as background

        women, jesus, my missis does the same, only with laptop, tv, freesat box on.

    2. sabroni Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Other way round

      Put an album on then channel surf with the sound down till you find something that sort of goes with the music. Cool!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: TV as background

      How crap does a telly program have to be that viewers are listening to music while it's on.

      "Being on ITV" or "cooed over by the tabloids" are useful markers of what might fit.

  6. i like crisps
    Facepalm

    Er....

    ....er....ermm.....i've got a......er....Mini Disc Recorder...er..is that er.....any help here?

  7. davcefai

    Missing Data?

    Granted that Brits spend more than others on music, what is the price per song/track whatever?

    Are the British buying more songs or paying more per song?

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: Missing Data?

      Looking at the data for Japan I am sure it's the latter.

    2. WhatAboutBob

      Re: Missing Data?

      Paying more per song would make sense as Japanese CD prices make even British prices seem reasonable.

  8. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Not quite sure I get it

    How did they get from "music sales have a positive impact on sales of some hardware" to saying that "each copy of something made in the cloud is valuable in its own right" (if I understood the coda correctly)?

  9. AIBailey
    Devil

    Piracy isn't killing music...

    Simon Cowell is.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like