The Curious Case of Flyte and Piracy

Flipkart shut down its digital music store Flyte, this week. At a price ranging from Rs 6 to Rs 15 per song, a lot of good music was available at one place. Why did Flipkart shut down Flyte?

Flyte didn't seem to be generating profit. Why? Many believe this is because Indians do not (or for the matter of fact anyone does not) like to pay for their music anymore. Everyone wants to buy pirated stuff which comes very cheap (read: free).

Is that the reason?  Well..there’s another side of the coin as well. Flipkart is successful because of its cash-on-delivery system, but then there was no way you could pay cash for Flyte purchases, and needed to use a card or net-banking. 

Viewers have shown that if a service can provide them with a convenient way to reach their content, viewers are more than willing to pay for it. Make them jump through too many hoops just for the privilege of listening to a song or watching a show though (and only when you say they can for that matter), and they just might find that searching for a download is the easier option.

Reddit has an interesting thread soliciting reasons (or rationalizations) from people about why they pirate e-books. 

A user there seems to have said…

For those who are against piracy I have a few questions for you.If your argument is "It's against the law", would you still be opposed to piracy if it was legal? If your argument is "it's wrong", expound please. I'm honestly curious on this because there are a great many ways that I can read that author's book without having to pay for it. Where do you draw the line?

Fact remains. There will always be a segment of the population that wants to freeload. But let's be frank here, those people are always going to find ways around an anti-piracy system. We're talking about the vast majority of viewers who are more than happy to shell out a few bucks to enjoy some good entertainment if it’s convenient.

and perhaps I fall in that segment of people who want to freeload but I look at paying as supporting the things I like. Be a patron for the things you love, otherwise they won't be able to sustain themselves. I buy every new book by my favorite authors

Blaming piracy for Flyte's shut down isn't completely rational. I mean iTunes seem to be doing pretty well! Food for thought?