The Daily Swarm

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Has the tide turned against bedroom P2P file-sharers in the music industry’s epic fight against piracy? The IFPI’s branch in Sweden—the home of illegal file-sharing—is reporting that Swedish music sales rose 18 percent in the first nine months of the year, after seven years of consecutive decline, following the introduction the anti-piracy IPRED law (via Guardian.co.uk).

Of that increase, nine percent comes from an increase in physical sales while a whopping 80 percent is attributed to digital revenue: Swedes are buying the tunes they used to borrow.

The Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) was introduced in April and threatened to make it easier for rights holders to hand over pirate’s IP addresses to the authorities. At first it appeared that the law had strengthened pirates’ resolve. But since then it’s been cited as the reason behind a 60 percent reduction in file-sharing in Sweden. And now the economic benefits of clamping down on BitTorrent culture are trickling through…

The Guardian:

Music executives in Britain are looking to Sweden’s experience for signs that their own tumbling sales can be stemmed by new laws outlined by the government last week. Business secretary Lord Mandelson’s digital economy bill includes controversial plans to send warning letters to the most flagrant unlawful filesharers and paves the way for persistent offenders to have their broadband suspended from 2011.

Opponents of the British proposals are quick to point out that the Swedish sales rise coincides with the emergence of new legal digital services such as the popular Spotify.

Music industry groups concede that too, but they insist the combination of carrot and stick is the key to changing consumer behaviour.