Music Industry Calls Halt to Giveaway CDs

In the UK, music is licenced to help marketing campaigns by giving away music with product. This tactic has been used the UK newspaper industry to great effect. Now according to Music Week, there are those within the industry that want to stop the practice, as they feel it undermines their fight against privacy and the UK's 50-year copyright law.

They're wrong:

- The music has been paid for in some way, shape or form from a marketing budget

- With the alleged demise of record sales to piracy, you'd think that the industry would want to explore alternative revenue streams

- CD samplers have been used by the music industry to drum up interest and sales in artists, so these free CDs should be a benefit rather than a hinderance

- The 50-year copyright law is not about the record companies getting what is rightfully theirs, but further encroaching on consumers fair use. Should the original publisher of William Shakespeare's works still be claiming copyright or are they a world treasure? Where do you stop? The 50-year issue has always existed the music industry was negligent in not allowing for it. Its as incompetent as someone who lives in a rented property, yet refuses to pay and then wonders why they get kicked out on to the street. Record companies have had access to the best lawyers money can buy, they have no excuse

- The 50-year copyright issue highlights a bigger problem in the music industry. That it has failed to invest in and build long-term acts on an ongoing basis and is relying on a legacy that it will be no longer entitled too. Like other industries such as the UK motorcycle and car industry, it should be allowed to pay the price for its lack of investment in talent