This article is a follow-up to a question from Aulia at an Obsat event, where I gave a presentation on Music in the Digital Era.
At the time, Aulia was responding to a statement from Jonathan about the recording industry asking Indonesia’s Minister of Communication to block piracy websites — similar to how pornography sites had been blocked. The minister promised action by June 2012.
Aulia’s question was: “Will blocking piracy websites actually solve the problem?” She looked straight at me, so I answered.
My response, roughly: first, we need to define what “illegal download” actually means. If you define it wrong, you’ll execute it wrong. And the recording industry needs to understand why people download illegally before deciding on a solution.
Why Do People Download Illegally?
- They can’t afford to buy it.
- The music isn’t available legally in their region.
- The legal version is inconvenient to access.
- They don’t see the value in paying for something they can get for free.
Blocking piracy sites addresses none of these root causes. People will simply find another way.
The Real Question: Grow the Market
Instead of “how do we stop piracy?”, the better question is: “how do we make legal music so accessible and affordable that piracy becomes less attractive?” Countries that have successfully reduced piracy — Sweden being the clearest example — didn’t do it by blocking websites. They did it by making legal options genuinely better. Spotify launched, streaming became cheap and convenient, and piracy dropped dramatically.
Still Unresolved
The minister’s promised action never fully materialized. And the question remains open. My position then and now: increase sales by making legal music better, not by making illegal music harder to find.