Article:  |
A Musician's Take on File Sharing, DRM, and Copyleft Licensing | |
| Subject: | Mp3 Helps, the record industy hurt themselves | |
| Date: | 2003-06-11 08:50:49 | |
| From: | anonymous2 | |
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Response to: Mp3 Helps, the record industy hurt themselves
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that's all well and good but the simple fact is for every one person who "downloads" an mp3 they "find" on the internet and then purchases a cd, there about a hundred that don't buy a copy.
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Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.
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Mp3 Helps, the record industy hurt themselves
2003-06-12 01:05:10 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I think you're wrong.
It is a well known fact that the major labels have produced less records, and most of those records are of less quality. A total lack of innovation and effort on their part is the cause of their smaller (but still huge) profits.
Any industry will lose revenue when it reduces output, this is basic economics. Also bare in mind that a downloaded MP3 is not a lost sale and certainly not a cost to the artist or label, they still have as much music as before.
The MPAA and RIAA as well as their European equivilents have fought to keep prices up and are trying to create an artificial scarcity by stamping on p2p, and reasonable use, as well as reducing output.
I have about 1000 mp3 songs, previously I have had several thousand. Of those 90% are those I already own. In fact many of these songs I own in multiple formats and multiple copies.
I also download MP3's of music I cannot get easily any other way.
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Mp3 Helps, the record industy hurt themselves
2003-06-11 16:45:53 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
The "wholesale theft", as you call it, is happening on many ends, my dear anonymous friend. As I'm sure you've heard, the big 5 record companies behind the RIAA steal virtually everything there is to steal from the artists themselves - their name, their songs (when you sign a contract with them, *your* songs become *their* songs), their lifestyle (the contract an artist is railroaded into signing contains enough restrictions and clever tricks to ensure an artist must comply or face career-ending consequences). Don't think that the 'pirates' are the only ones that are stealing, though that's not the right word to use. People have the RIGHT under fair use to listen to a song in whatever format they wish, be it copying their CDs to tapes, MP3 players, whatever you wish. You can't trade it with others, which is where file-sharing arguably (and clearly) becomes wrong. However, there is a revolution at hand, and like in any revolution, the rules are being broken, the boundries made useless.
I have heard more GOOD music as an intern at a small indie label in the last 3 WEEKS than I have on all of the radio stations in my area in the last year or so... If you truly want to help musicians and other artists, step outside of the comfort zone of artists you already know, and look for indie artists in your area. Trust me, you won't hear about them on the front page of the NY Times, or screaming at you about their newest CD on the radio. They'll be in the clubs, in the smaller more intimate settings, where music is made with a voice and some instruments, not a noise-making synthesizer or a computer designed to make your voice sound perfect. They'll be singing and playing their hearts out, trying to sell enough CDs at a reasonable price to continue doing what they love for a living - making music.
To conclude, file-sharing is wrong, but how else is this long-overdue message to the RIAA supposed to get across? The only way they have responded thus far is when their sales have decreased, so vote with your wallets - forget the RIAA labels and go support a musician who actually needs your money.
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Mp3 Helps, the record industy hurt themselves
2003-06-11 16:37:27 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
That's rubbish. It's a flawed assumption to assume that someone who downloads then doesn't purchase would have purchased in the first place. There is no loss of sale if no sale would have been made.
Artists make stuff all from their CD sales anyway (unless they're independent). It's far more valuable to any artist to have a larger fan base than to make a CD sale. Fans come to shows and buy merch. The problem with you argument other than the flawed "lost sale", is that it's a short term perspective on something that has long term effects.
The only people that lose are the Record Company. The artist can do naught but gain.
