EMI Group Plc, Vivendi Universal SA and other record labels will join with musicians to pay for a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to convince consumers not to illegally trade or copy music on the Internet.
Print ads were set to start running yesterday with TV, said Hilary Rosen, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, who declined to specify the cost.
David Munns, vice chairman of EMI Recorded Music, cited a recent study commissioned by the association showing that 70 percent of those who illegally copy and trade music files don't realize it's against the law.
The RIAA attributes most of the industry's US$400 million drop in sales from the first half of last year to the same period this year to online and physical piracy and estimates that US$4 billion worth of products is illegally obtained annually.
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