Will a Warning Sticker on CDs Stop Piracy?

Journalists get a lot of promo CDs; so many that we've found other uses for them. Recently, though, we stumbled across one from Ninja Tune that really stood out from the pile in the bin on our desk. Emblazoned on a white, minimal background - and taking up much of the front cover - was a warning message.

The warning read: "Before you copy, burn or upload these recordings, please take a moment to think about what you're doing. You are not "striking a blow against outdated copyright laws" or "liberating content from the corporations," nor are you "promoting our record for us". You are making it much harder for the musicians on our label to make anything like a living wage for creating the music which you think is good enough to share. You are making it harder for an independent label to stay in business, we're not trying to rip anyone off - we split all profits 50/50 with our artists and put out music we believe in."

The striking thing about the warning sticker is the sincerity; Ninja Tune are reminding people each time they download a ZIP file, they're stopping artists from being able to afford dinner and a heating bill. But will it make any difference, or will people ignore it in the same way they do a tar-filled lung on a pack of Marlboros? We spoke to Peter Quicke, managing director at Ninja Tune, to find out why they're implementing the warnings.

Noisey: We came across an interesting warning label on your Dorian Concept promo. How long have you been placing these on your promo CDs?
Peter: We put a similar warning on a few records in 2007, written by Will Ashon - founder of Big Dada Records. We stopped using it for a while because it seemed a bit overblown and then started up again a year or so ago with the current editted version.

Was your intent to scare people off pirating the music or to connect with them on a personal level and make them understand your predicament?
We wanted people to understand our, and our artists', situation. Our artists almost invariably dislike their records being pirated.

How often are albums leaked by members of the press/industry, rather than by labels, studios or fans?
Nearly all albums are leaked from the copies we send out to press and radio, except sometimes when we use watermarks.

Did you feel that watermarks are not enough in preventing this?
We wanted to communicate our point of view as well.

Have you ever thought about adding the notices to your actual non-promotional CDs?
No. We don’t want to add unnecessary/ugly small print to copies that our customers (our real supporters) have paid good money for.

Do you think we'll ever see large warnings like this on all CDs by law, like on cigarette packets?
Haha, I suppose we might. The people making laws come up with all sorts of bollocks.

How badly do you estimate you're being hit by piracy?
We understand from industry surveys that more people copy music for free than pay for it. We don’t know how many of those people would have paid for music if they couldn’t have copied for free, so it's hard to tell. We don’t spend much time thinking about that, we put more effort is put into dealing with the situation as it is.

You dismiss claims that piracy "promotes records" and "liberates against corporations". How often do you hear these excuses?
Not so much any more, I think most people knows the score now.

Do you feel that a large part of piracy is that people are ignorant to the damage they're causing rather than intentionally trying to rip labels off?
I guess some people like the idea of ripping off artists and labels, but mainly I'd guess people try not to think about it too much.

How do you see the future faring for independent labels?
The future will be fine for labels that find the best music and work it intelligently - there are a lot of independent labels doing that so think it will be fine. Many new digital platforms are great for labels and artists - Spotify and Deezer have done a lot to engage people in paying for/supporting music who previously did not.

And provided the bigger digital gatekeepers don’t succeed in preventing labels and artists getting paid a reasonable rate for music.

Thanks for speaking to us.

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