50% off tracks to stop music piracy

YOUNG web-users are to be offered half-price music downloads in a government scheme to lure them away from illegal sites.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said subsidising the cost of buying songs online for a trial period would "get young people back into the habit of paying for music".

The pre-paid music download card is due to launch later this year. It will come with up to €50 of credit with users paying half the price and the other half being met by the state. The exact age range is yet to be defined.

"If we are going to dissuade music pirating, the legal offer needs to be more attractive," Sarkozy told music industry executives in Paris.

The card is one of the recommendations contained in a report by French record label boss and former Virgin France director Patrick Zelnik, who was commissioned to look at how to improve the fortunes of the music industry.

"We believe that for every track that is bought legally there are another 20 songs changing hands illegally," Mr Zelnik said. "However two-thirds of illegal downloaders say they would be willing to go legal if it cost less."

According to the Syndicat National de l’Edition Phonographique, the record industry’s annual revenues have more than halved in seven years, down from €1.3bn in 2002 to €606m in 2008 - the last set of full-year figures available at present.

Legal downloading accounts for about 15% of all revenue, growing from nothing to e76.3m over the same period.

The government has set up an anti-piracy body, Hadopi, that is due to start sending out warning letters to illegal downloaders between April and July, however laws allowing the body to function have not yet been passed.