Clients of Jupiter Research will know that we see ISPs being the focal point of Europe’s online music market. However it seems that a lot of them want to have their cake and eat it*: whilst ISPs are trying to secure legitimate music content to drive usage of their broadband services, it seems that some of their portals are still linking directly to illegal MP3 sites. One major Spanish ISP even has “Recommended Site” links on its front page to Illegal file sharing networks such as eMule!!
To date European ISPs have had a much better relationship with the music industry than their US counterparts, and that quality of relationship is essential for the long term prosperity of Europe’s online music market. But if some ISPs persist in actively promoting illegal file sharing, it won’t be long before we start to see some of those relationships turning sour.
*Irrelevant fact for the day: the phrase “you can’t have your cake and eat it” has actually lost its meaning through misuse: the phrase originally used to read “you can’t eat your cake and have it”.
