The way the world consumes music is rapidly changing and Russell Hergert, director of Digital Music Delivery (DMD) believes this change will empower the local music industry in its fight to protect the rights of artistes and their work.

Speaking at the International Reggae Day Creative Industries forum held last Thursday at the Hilton Hotel under the theme Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Driving the Caribbean Creative Economy, Hergert said that the Jamaican music fraternity should gear up to take advantage of alternative distribution channels made available through most high-end mobile phones.
"It's not the Internet that's going to change the Third World, it's the mobile phone," Hergert said, adding that, computer manufacturers Apple changed the way people listen to music.

Music/entertainment journalist Claudette Powell talks to Russell Hergert of DMD/phred media during the Creative Industry forum held on Thursday at the Hilton hotel.

"No longer are people forced to sit before a computer system. Instead, they have the freedom to work and walk about with an iPod on." He outlined, however, that iPod devices are only compatible with the Apple music player programme, iTunes and so excludes alternate file types.

Hergert told his audience that mobile phones offer a greater propensity for file-sharing and is more convenient. Last year alone, some 7,000 new digital products were patented, of this number, Hergert says, a significant portion were those capable of downloading music.
"Online download is biggest in Asia," he said outlining that some 80% of the continent's population download music directly to the cellular phone.

"These phones, called 3-G high-end phones, feature mega-impressive abilities that phones in the west do not offer," he added. Hergert admitted that with this technology, Jamaican producers and artistes will be better able to manage their portfolios.

"A Jamaican artiste no longer has to give up the rights [of his work] to an international label but can keep them and give the international company the small share," Hergert said. He said too, that digital downloads and file sharing better facilitates a relationship between artistes and their fans.

"Digital downloads delivered over the Internet or mobile networks offer better value to the seller and the owner of the music,so that gains made her can be passed on to the customer through cheaper, targeted releases," he said, adding that, in 2005 the digital music industry earn some US $1.6 billion - a figure which is to increase by at least 10 per cent in 2008.

The newest music consumption devices, he said, has most of the world's largest record companies "crying".
"There has been a decline in CD sales... in 2004, the industry earned US$25 billion and that figure dropped by six per cent in 2005."

The music mogul, who has with a number of labels over the years, challenged the status quo, noting that file-sharing may decrease incidents of piracy.
"It's impossible to kill piracy and it's crazy to try," Hergert said adding that, "the people who pirate files are the people who most support the music industry".

He emphasised the inevitability of piracy, adding that, the music business is no match for the meta-physical powers of music.
"Whether it's a CD or MP3...it's a song. It's something that connects people emotionally and that means something," despite the looming threat of a lawsuit or jail time.

Still, he believes that as Jamaica is completely in control of its genre - reggae, label executives must see the benefits of making downloading more accessible.

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