TorrentFreak reports that record labels are currently using P2P networks as a reference on what people are listening. It seems that a few days ago, some emails from Mediadefender got leaked, and TorrentFreak discovered a conversation between someone at Interscope Records and this security company in which they try to find a clear trend for one of their artists based on P2P activity.
What really interests me is that years ago the only way to tell if an artist was popular was record sales, but today there are lots of people that use P2P networks as an “on-demand radio station” which, pointing the obvious, can be tracked and measured rather than the traditional radio, in which you don’t really know if someone who has the device on is really listening or cooking breakfast for the kids.
As Eduardo puts it, having an intensive research on music trends can be quite expensive, but watching the activity on P2P networks suddenly seems like a friendly idea, even though P2P is still “the enemy”. Perhaps, if record labels are so into these networks, we are close to finding a way to keep it free to users and make these companies earn some money from their contents, because its pretty darn obvious that the labels can be benefited from this new way of consuming:
In a business, this type of market foresight can be invaluable. Nearly always leading to more profits, customers feel happier and more satisfied with the products they are offered, leading to greater loyalty longer-term.
WHAT TO DO NOW?