Abhijeet Ahluwalia

Ok, so the piracy debate isn’t new. Nearly a decade may have passed since the early days of Napster, but we’re nowhere closer to seeing a consensus about what to do with pirates, and indeed whether music piracy is that bad. James Blunt has thrown his hat into the fray, and you can bet he won’t be the last one.

But here’s what no one tells you about piracy – to a lot of people in Asia, it’s a god-send. And we don’t want to give it up any time soon.

Being an Indian and a metalhead, let me paint a picture of life as a fan of non-mainstream music in this part of the world. One of my favourite bands, Despised Icon, recently released their new album. Now, in Europe or the USA, you can order it on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, or any number of online stores, not to mention high street retailers.

In India – no retailer stocks metal bands as a matter of practise. None.

There are a few exceptions of course, Metallica and Iron Maiden are still available in some stores. But there’s no guarantee you’ll get the album you want. If you want something specific, there’s nothing to be done except to go to each and every outlet in your city and go through every single CD in the store to check if they have a copy of what you want. I kid you not. It took a friend 4 years to locate a copy of Metallica’s Load. You can buy the same album on Amazon in about 30 seconds if you live in Europe/North America.

Sadly, pop remains the most popular genre of music, and trying to buy anything else is an exercise in futility. Online shopping hasn’t taken off yet in most of Asia, so there is no question of being able to do a quick search for whatever you want.And I’m not even going into the issue of censorship, because that would require a whole new post all to itself.

Is it really surprising then, that Asia loves it’s piracy? It’s the only way for us to get the music we want and like. It has fostered entire sub-cultures that could not exist without piracy. Sam Dunn made an excellent documentary recently called Global Metal, which looked at metal in different countries around the world, including India. What he doesn’t question is how metal has become popular enough to foster an underground movement and spawn a few hundred bands across India. The answer, of course, is piracy. It’s the only way for people here to get the music they like. There are tons of metal/punk/ska/reggae/jazz fans in India today, and that’s despite the music industry here not because of it.

That’s also why you don’t find much sympathy for music labels in this part of the world. We have been intentionally deprived of our favourite music for so long, there is actually an active hatred for the music industry. Essentially, they’re telling you that you’re a second grade citizen of the world because you don’t live in Europe/America, so you cannot have the music you like. No one is going to accept that in the 21st century. What this means is that one day, when the suits realise there is a huge market for these ‘fringe’ genres as well, they’re not going to be able to sell a single CD, because entire generations have now grown up knowing that piracy is the only way to get the music you want and that the music labels are the bad guys. Old habits die hard, old mindsets die harder.

So maybe the global music industry should start planning for the battle it’s going to face in the fastest growing region in the world. While they’re busy trying to disconnect repeat offenders in the western world, they’re digging themselves into a deeper hole in Asia. And they don’t even realise it.

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