The recent China Daily census of Internet users in China has astounded some and worried many more. The number, quoted at 457 million users, has undoubtedly taken the West by surprise. To put that into perspective, thats roughly the sum of the populations of the United States and Russia. I mean, we all know China has a ridiculous population but who would have thought that such a large portion of a developing nation enjoyed regularly access to the Internet. Perhaps more surprisingly is the fact that the majority of these users access the Internet through mobile phone. This means we're not dealing with groups of impoverished farmers waiting long lines outside of Internet access points just to read of their far-away relatives. What we are dealing with is a major sector of the Chinese population that is wasting no time in modernizing and innovating. So what changes can be expected with the arrival of a digital China? Will China now be the leading developer of digital material?
There are several simple reasons why music piracy simply cannot be stopped. I need not delve further than the following: A) Any TRUE music fan has spent forty years listening to their favorite artist complain about the injustices bestowed upon them by "The Man". It is forty years too late for a label to beg for loyalty from its patrons, especially without the support of the artists they are representing. B) The most popular developed alternative to file sharing is to pay a dollar per song downloaded. Is that absurd or what? I can buy a terabyte external hard drive for 70$ today. For forty something dollars I can now get the iPhone 3g!... but you're gonna charge me a dollar per song? A price war with piracy would run the labels out of business. We are not dealing with merchants in a back alley selling dvds for 5 dollars. On the internet everything is free. C) Several bands have proven that independently releasing albums at a donation cost actually increases prof