ＣＤ ＶＳ Ｍｕｓｉｃ Ｄｏｗｎｌｏａｄｓ

MUSIC lovers are being forced to pay high prices for downloading songs from the internet by record companies keen to protect sales of conventional CDs， according to industry experts.

The policy of \"strategic pricing\"means it can sometimes cost more to download an album than to buy it in the shops， where CD prices have fallen to an average of about ￡9.

Critics believe the phenomenon is prompting music buyers to turn to illegal websites where they risk prosecution for obtaining songs at substantially discounted prices.

While Apple's iTunes Music Store sells individual tracks for 79p， people using AllofMP3.com website， the second most popular download site in Britain， can purchase entire albums for ￡1.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI)， which represents the record companies， claimed that AllofMP3.com was operating illegally and said it will be suing its owners.

In 2005， 40m tracks were legally bought online in the UK. Although this accounts for only about 2% of overall music sales， the figure is forecast to rise to 15% by 2011， representing a market value of more than ￡300m.

傳統CD遭遇音樂下載

據唱片工業的專家稱：唱片公司為保護傳統CD的銷售，使得音樂愛好者不得不付高價來從網絡上下載歌曲。

這種“策略性定價”行為意味著有時下載一整張專輯會比從商店買一張專輯貴一些。在唱片店里，CD專輯的均價已經下降到了9英鎊。

批評家認為這種現象將促使消費者轉向非法網站，他們會冒被起訴的風險以非常低廉的價格從這些網站獲取歌曲。

蘋果公司的iTunes網上音樂店以79便士的價格售賣單曲。人們在英國第二大最受歡迎的下載網站——AllofMP3.com，能夠以1英鎊的價格購買到整張專輯。

英國唱片工業協會（BPI）代表唱片公司宣稱AllofMP3.com網站非法運營，并稱他們將起訴其所有者。

在2005年，英國有4000萬只單曲是通過在線的方式合法購買的，盡管這只占音樂總銷售的2%，但這一數字預計在2011年將升至15%，市場價值將超過3億英鎊。

（Joseph Leu/編譯）