Instant Gratification

INSTANT GRATIFICATION: In an attempt to stem piracy, Universal and Sony Music will make digital singles available for sale on the day they first hit the airwaves in the U.K.. The two biggest British labels are hoping the move will encourage young fans to buy songs they can listen to immediately rather than copying them from online radio broadcasts. UMG chief David Joseph commented: "Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation. It's out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance." Glee and The X Factor have both experienced success by immediately selling downloads of music sung on broadcasts. "What we were finding under the old system was the searches for songs on Google or iTunes were peaking two weeks before they actually became available to buy, meaning that the public was bored of, or had already pirated, new singles," added Joseph. (1/18a)