Canto-pop looks to the Net for survival
The latest Canto-pop hits will be available for legal downloading from the internet next year, if the local music industry has its way.
The industry hopes to launch Hong Kong's first legal download site within six months, charging fans up to $8 a song.
'There are too many illegal downloading websites and we hope to have a legal one operating as soon as possible,' said Elton Yeung Chi-hang, chief executive officer of the Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong.
The service could be offered through major internet service providers, but he could not confirm which ones.
'At the moment we need to clarify the publishing and sound rights [with record companies]. If things go smoothly, I hope it will operate in half a year,' Mr Yeung said.
Pricing would be set in reference to the United States, where downloading often costs US99c a song.
Keith Wong, producer at local music firm Boombeat Music, said there had been a long discussion about such a website.
'It should be launched as soon as possible. Legal downloading services like Apple's iTunes have been so successful. This service must be introduced to Hong Kong,' he said.
Mr Wong said that because of the success of Apple's MP3 player iPod, people were willing to purchase songs from iTunes.
He said that major search engines like Yahoo, instead of service providers, would be the most appropriate to supply the service.
'But the problem in Hong Kong is whether people have the sense to protect intellectual rights and whether they are willing to pay,' Mr Wong said. 'For a long time, downloading from file-sharing technologies such as BT [BitTorrent] and Kazaa has been free.
'I think people are willing to pay $3 to $5 for a song, but whether record companies would accept this rate is still open for discussion.'
