In an attempt to combat digital piracy, Sony Music and Universal have announced that they will start the sale of digital singles on the same day that the music is broadcasted on radio. According to record label executives, the move is meant to serve what The Guardian calls the "impatient X Factor generation" who are unwilling to wait for weeks between the radio launch of a song and its actual sales release.

Whether or not increasing piracy is aggravated by the slow release of new material, there's no doubt that songs are available for downloading online very shortly after they’ve been on air.

According to music executives, the practice of "setting up" a record several weeks in advance of sales to create a hype is out-of-date. Universal Music has been monitoring the search for songs online and discovered that queries on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy," This could indicate that the public was bored of - or had already pirated - new singles before they were for sale." Universal and Sony Music realise they need to encourage the impatient younger generations to buy songs rather than copy them online. David Joseph, the chief executive of Universal Music, said: "Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation.”

The Guardian reports that industry insiders believe this new "on air, on sale" policy will make it easier for songs to climb the charts as soon as excitement grows. Sony and Universal will start this new policy in the U.K. It's not clear if other record labels - or labels in other countries - will follow suit.

Although it is not certain whether a lack of "instant gratification" in the distribution of new songs is really the impetus behind music piracy, piracy remains a crippling problem for the British music business. In the UK, the overall market decreased by nearly 6% in 2010 and album sales dropped 7%. Although pirating songs from the radio is as old as tape recorders, this new strategy shows that record companies attempt to counter the current trend by being innovative.

Source: The Guardian