let me just add my 2 cents here. i've been working in the "music industry" for near to 10 years now (and will hopefully at least 10 more), most of the time at 2 of the major record companies in marketing positions.
[and i sure hope i don't kill this thread... something that seems to happen quite frequently after i've posted to a thread...]
i should probably go through the various posts in order, but before i go into this let me just state my basic opinion on this entire topic: illegal downloading is actually hurting some musicians and companies working with/for these musicians, but it is only a symptom of other things and definitely not the source of all problems.
so, here we go.
Tell me yr a pingle meece? wrote: Which is that no-one actually immediately loses anything; everyone in the world could download an album a hundred times, and Sony wouldn't suddenly be out of pocket by billions of dollars. and Certainly there's room for an argument about morality there, but to draw direct equivalence between illegally *copying* one thing and illegally removing another is basically pretty stupid on the face of it.
well, no. if your whole base of business is the copy and making available of something - because technically a cd or any other physical sound storage medium is also just a copy and a form of making the content (music) available to more people - to others, then it hurts you when that copying is being done without your consent. you might compare it to a service, say, a painter. let's say a technology comes into existence that allows people to paint their houses and flats at the push of a button, without any cost or work. sure, the painter is still there, he's got his tools, no one took anything from him, but fewer people will request his services. ok, that comparison is not very accurate, but i think you get the gist of it. and any company (be it small or big) that works in the chain from artist to consumer - i mean, actually DOES something - is entitled to benefit from its work. only fair, yes?
jamesPD wrote: As the previous poster also said, it's also important to note that a downloaded album is not necessarily the same as a lost sale. and Finally, the record companies never seem to admit that there's a possibility that people that download albums, might actually end up buying the physical product, something my brother in law often did. They often equate each download with the certain assumption that (A) the person would have bought the album if downloading didn't exist, and (B) they didn't pop into HMV the following week and buy a physical copy.
it's true a download DOES NOT equal a lost sale, but as i've pointed out above it DOES equal a lost opportunity. and while i would agree with the robert heinlein quote i can also understand why anyone basing their livelihood on such a model should be concerned. but, true, it also irks me quite dramatically how absolutely foolish and ignorant the recording industry and its various entities go about dealing with the matter at hand. sometimes i almost feel personally ashamed for the inane arguments and tactics that riaa and ifpi display, no doubt. and i agree with wildstallion: taking your own customers to court for adapting to a new situation is just... words fail me, that's how ridiculous and downright arsefaced this is.
and finally PatrickMM wrote: But, I think it's pretty clear that people are buying significantly fewer CDs because of illegal downloads. For some, this may that they are getting those one or two tracks they want, and not being stuck with the filler, but I'm sure just as many are using the illegal download to replace what would be a legal purchase. So, there is a loss. Of course, the question is whether it's the record companies that are really hurt by this loss, or the artist.
i disagree. i don't think that people buy less cds or music in general BECAUSE of illegal downloads. my opinion is that various historical decisions and market developments in the music industry, for most of which i find the recording industry at fault, have just devalued sound storage mediums to such an extent that music itself has lost in value in a frightening manner. so, while music consumption is at an all time high - never before has it been as easy to just turn a device on and listen to gigantic amounts of all sorts of music instantly! - the appreciation for the process of creating such music has been almost entirely lost and exists only within the circles of the "music nerds and geeks", those who willingly spend their money on music anyway.
the big companies, such as the one i am working at, are mostly just whining and deny to face the fact that their time is as good as over. the market is diversifying, it's not about bulk anymore, it's about selection, choice and service. it boggles the mind to think that only now the first subscription type models for customers to access music are being released to the world. and more often than not they aren't quite satisfying.
but another thing that happens to smalle companies and individual artists down the line is that they are actually losing income, because they can't find a proper distribution channel that will yield the income they need to cover their expenditure. this of course applies to some musical genres - laptop musicians have it easy. next to know expenditure means that every cent earned is a profit. but what about bands that actually need to record live, with probably vintage gear? what about independent labels that have invested in such an act and find that neither is their investment coming back nor is the band earning any money, even though the band is wildly popular if one were to measure their popularity in myspace friends and illegal downloads? i don't have the answer to that and i surely wouldn't blame illegal downloads as the cause for all this aggravation. no, the problem is rooted much deeper, it's about the music itself and how it is being viewed: as a commodity and not actually as enjoyable and consumable pieces of art.
this is a very superficial post, i know. hopefully, within the course of this discussion, i get to elaborate on certain points and learn your viewpoints. |
