Interview R2G on Online Music Distribution & Piracy

R2G is the the first centralized music distribution platform in China. As I wrote earlier "It plays a third-party function between service providers and content providers, organizing music licensing and monitoring its distribution." It also has "an agreement with China's Copyright Protection Centre" to provide "data records services as legal evidence in copyright-related lawsuits".

The Pacific Epoch has an interview wit R2G co-founder Scarlett Li on their deal with Universal Music and runnig a music distribution and monitoring business in China:

PE: What kind of authority does R2G have with regard to controlling piracy? Does it mostly involve monitoring activity, and then letting Universal take whatever action they choose?

SL: Universal has given us the authority to take legal action, but we will normally only do this after discussing with Universal first, after which we have various things we can do. The important thing for us is to help SPs understand the benefit of legal content and also to obtain the legal content easier because sometimes the channel is not clear. So we are not only monitoring piracy but also licensing content. Any piracy behavior will not only affect Universal, but it will also affect our revenue stream and our rights, because we are distributing the content.

[...]

PE: What do you think is the best way to deal with the piracy issue in China? Is it mostly up to the government, or will it be companies like R2G that take lead in fighting piracy?

SL: I think the most effective way to address piracy is actually for legal content providers to provide a service that is better than pirated services. There must be a legal service at a reasonable price and that is better quality and faster than the pirated services. Government effort is important, but even more important is to provide a product that is competitive with the illegal services. It is similar to what iTunes did in the US. The US has a huge piracy issue as a result of P2P networks, but when Apple launched their iTunes service, it was better than the illegal services, which gave them a large part of the market. So I really think the most important factor is the product itself. If you provide a better service, even if it's a little bit more expensive, people will use it.

More interview here [registration required - Usern./Passw.: dada]