Music piracy in Myanmar

As internet penetration picks up, the music industry has decided to embrace online distribution in Myanmar.  Physical sales are already low and many towns do not have any music CDs available. Piracy is blamed as part of the reason. Myanmar Music Organisation recently announced it would used enhanced labelling to identify genuine discs. Illegal online P2P file sharing has been cited as a reason for weakening physical sales.
 
So www.myanmarmusic store.com was launched on October 27th.  Original songs can be downloaded on the web or to mobile devices. There are separate sites for local and international buyers, since copyright in local cover songs are only available in Myanmar. Overseas buyers (including a large expat/diaspora population) will have separate access. Local payment systems are already operating.

Not every artist is embracing the system. “I don’t think this will work well because there are still places that we can download for free,” hip- hop artist, Kyaw Htut Swe explained. “If there is a place we can go and download without paying anything, everyone including me, will choose what they want to get for free. Only when we can clear all the free share websites, the online sales will be okay.”

Legacy Music Academy a music rights organisation has already taken online takedown action against several pirate websites including US media storage platform Mediafire. The new Copyright law will hopefully assist in 2014.