Rockstars and Piracy in Asia

I'm a huge fan of reality shows. The most recent one I've been following is Rockstar INXS - the show which follows the super 80's Australian band, INXS, and their search for a new lead singer.

If you haven't seen it, it's a great show, the music and performances are incredible (blows American Idol or any Idol show out of the water). The other great thing about this show is that the voting (everyone gets to vote for their favourite singer) let's people all over the world vote for their favourite singer where most other shows restrict interactions to American audiences only.

Of course, after each show is over, the music is available to download from the MSN music site. So, after hearing some great music, I quickly logged on and went straight to the MSN music site and decided to PAY FOR the music downloads. I was more than happy to contribute and give these deserving artists what they deserved.

But guess what? The music downloads are only available to US audiences! I quickly contacted MSN support, "Where can someone outside of the US buy this music?" They quickly and politely replied and said that it is presently only available to the US market but music will be available in other markets later. Later? How much later? The shows already over!

Look at iTunes, that's only available to US, Canada and the UK as well. What about the rest of the world?

It's kind of strange when I hear complaints about the piracy problem in Asia, not to say there isn't, but companies aren't helping themselves if they don't make legitimate copies available from the right channels. Where else are consumers supposed to turn to if they have no legitimate outlet to buy from?

Let's face it, CDs are so 90's. Not to mention expensive. Asia is at the forefront of technology and mp3's are the format of choice. So why aren't there more channels available to the Asian markets?

So, what did I end up doing? I did what MSN support told me to do, visit other regional MSN sites like Singapore and Australia to see whether I could find the music there. I found music but not the Rockstar songs from the show I was looking for. Getting a little frustrated and agitated at the fact they really didn't want to make money off me by making it EXTREMELY difficult for me to buy from them.

After all this, there is a point I'm trying to make (actually two points):

1. I'm sure the artists and the producers of the show could have made double, three times maybe even ten times the sales they made if they made the song downloads available to the rest of the world or at least to the other markets that the show was playing in (i.e. Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong, etc) - Lesson to be learned: Don't make it difficult for your customers or potential customers to buy from you
2. Piracy and intellectual property infringement IS a problem in Asia. However, it could be less of a problem if companies would understand that a normal person in Mumbai, Bangkok or Beijing isn't going to pay (or afford to pay) US$20+ for a CD. On the other hand US$0.99 per song download sounds reasonable and most people could afford that, assuming they had internet access, but without a reasonable access channel to these affordable alternatives where else are they supposed to go to satisfy their demand?

Wayne Po is the founder and publisher of Asiapreneur.com (http://www.asiapreneur.com), an online magazine helping overseas businesses who want to expand and do business in Asia.

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