Slashdot Mirror
EMI Promises Downloadable Music
SataiCam writes "The Economist has an article up referring to EMI's plans to implement digital music downloading starting on December 1 through a whole host of 'distributors'. They claim it will allow users to get music in 'the formats they are demanding' (ogg?), to burn copies of songs, and download them to other devices. Here's the press release from EMI."
Now all of us complaining about our rights to songs have an opportunity to put our $$ where our mouth is... Will you guys pay for downloadable music? If this doesn't work it will be a good sign that we are all just a bunch of pirates, or will it?
Stubbornness can only last so long, it seems. It was inevitable that the Music industry would eventually realize that the old axiom "If you can't beat them, join them", is an old axiom for a reason.
If they had thought about all of this five years ago, of course, they could have realized a lot more profit. But, I'm sure that they will throw money at it until they are competitive.
The real question is, will they be able to guilt everybody into not pirating their music...
A nice announcement, score one for the team, but I do not plan on supporting that company any time soon. The content of their now infamous email correspondance is still fresh in my mind.
Ever time I hear this, I wonder why the record labels are bothering. It's not that tough of a decision for consumers. You can have digitally-rights managed, proprietary format songs that you pay for, or songs that you can burn to a CD or put on a portable player for free. And before I get flamed, yes, I am in favor of the artists getting compensation. But the record industry has a rather bad track record when it comes to giving artists a fair share of the profits. What's to assure me they won't just do the same with this new form of media? Give me a system that doesn't restrict my fair use, isn't overpriced and gives more than a 2% share to the artist, then I'll look at it.
live(free) || die;
?-|||-----x<*))))><
Perhaps allowing you to buy more than 1 license so you can put it on your computer AND your mp3 player.
"Allowing," my ass. I can do that right now, with a CD I've purchased once - and it's perfectly legal. What you're talking about is requiring me to buy multiple licenses in order to retain the same functionality that I already have - and it's bullshit.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
No one wants buy god damn mp3s online. They want something they can hold in their hands! And also, how many freakin' people have credit cards? I'm talking about the whole lot of kids and teenagers who are the main target market for a lot of music these days.
Stop with these horseshit schemes and drop the prices of fucking CDs already. They should slice the price of CDs in half, and then I'd start buying them again. Those greedy bastard musicians can then realize what it means to work for their money.
Most importantly, I want to be able to formatshift, burn, mix, freely trade, and put the music files on any device I wish. I will never use a service that imposed DRM restrictions on my fair use rights
Please, if what you really want is to download music for free, just say so. Trying to claim that your "free trading" is fair use just dilutes the message of those who are defending things that are fair use, such as format shifting and such.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
over 90% of CDs sold in China is pirated
well NO SHIT considering the average chinese citizen has a YEARLY purchasing power of 3,000 US dollars. that's 250 dollars per month, and you think people will shell out 15 dollars for a CD?
Of course, similar to the US (90% of the money is controled by 10% of people), chinese economic ladder is skewed too -- so actually the average family subsides on 100-150 dollars per month usually.
hence, all the "oh my god 4.6 billion dollars lost sale" is so bullshit that you can't even begin.
interesting side note: since there are so many people there, even though the average purchasing power is only 3000 (actually comparable to many nations (for example, in africa) that's starving), it still makes china the second largest economic power in the world.
but don't ever, EVER think people there can afford "legit" music, software, and all the crap we buy while taking the disposible income for granted.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
If the historical model of the consumer paying for art once and being able to enjoy it for the rest of his life, then it will work. This is the way books, paintings, and music have been sold to consumers for centuries, and in the last few decades movies have joined the list as well.
But if they decide to try to limit the usage term after purchase, which I believe is the real goal of DRM and other copy protection systems, then it will fail because consumers will feel cheated by the industry.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
My point is that each person wants to control how they listen and what they hear. It's about expressing yourself through the music you play, even if it's just playing a CD track or listening to an mp3 (or ogg). You don't get more anti-freedom (totalitarian) than telling me what I must or cannot read/hear/watch/say or when I do so. Call me a "liberal" (gasp) "anti-capitalist" (the horror) consumer but when I buy books/movies/music/cableTV/satTV then I think that I have a right to read/watch/listen/touch it when, where, and how I want to.
Making it more difficult for me to enjoy new movies/music/books/whatever how and where I want to won't entice me to buy more. If a music CD/movie won't play on my computer - where I spend 80% of my waking time - or in my car (where I spend 15+ hours a week) or on my mp3 player at the gym (where I spend <.00000001% of my time) then I just won't bother with it. And neither will a zillion other people. It's not worth the trouble.
And that's the problem.
I'm going back to coding and watching V: The Original Miniseries on DVD.
I am really excited to have the opportunity to once again pay for the same songs from such wonderful people as
Billy Idol, Blondie, David Bowie, Coldplay, Joe Cocker, DC Talk, Duran Duran, Everclear, Fatboy Slim, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Kottonmouth Kings, Dave Koz, Lenny Kravitz, Megadeth, Kylie Minogue, Anne Murray, Tina Turner, Thalia, Keith Urban, The Vines, Cassandra Wilson and The Beach Boys
many for the third or fourth time. It is clear that the what the record labels consider piracy is the consumer not paying full price for a song on each new media. It is not enough the we pay for the CD, we have to pay for the MP3 as well, probably on each device with which we wish to play.
It is also clear from the list that EMI believes none of us have any interest in artists such as Shaggy, AALIYAH, Janet Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Meridith Brooks, Garth Brooks, or any other artists that has had a major new album in the last two years. I certainly don't want to be one of those people that damn them if they do or if they don't, but the press release gives me little hope that this is any more than a way to push old material.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Formatting problems aside, this will fail for 2 reasons, both are money. The first is obvious, if you do a search of the press release, the word 'price' is never mentioned. You would think they would have something like 'each track can be downloaded for a reasonable price'. Nope. Wanna bet it will be $2.49 a song, restricted also, because people 'demand' secure formats because they don't want to be 'ripped off'. Sure, this will fly. That is the short term deathblow.
The longer one is more insidious. Say you have the songs you purchased on your hard drive, and one day, you turn your machine on and hear a grinding noise followed by clicks. Disk failure. You then call up the nice people who sold you the music and ask for new copies, because your legally purchased music is gone, and you are well within your rights to request another copy. Remember, they give you the honor of using a license, not owning the track. If your HD dies, you still have the rights to the license. So, you ask the nice person on the phone if you can have free downloads of the entire 98Sync degrees to men collection that you just spent $800 on. Then you wait. You can just barely hear the riotous laughter through the phone that has dropeed to the floor on the other end. Then they tell you to fuck off. Luckily, in the fine print that they changed since you agreed to it, legally of course, they want the money they spent on senators put to good use, says 'we can tell you to fuck off at any time for any reason'. So you fuck off. And then you never patronise them, or any other similar service again. This will really end the industry, and they are way way to greedy to do anything else.
Lastly, a personal note. The music industry, chiefly in the guise of the RIAA has done more in the last year or two to erode our civil rights than anything else that I can think of. They killed several good, legal services, and they are not stopping. They are forcing changes to the technology that I use and love to make them more money. They have no qualms about buying power and abusing it on a whim. If you doubt it, read the legislation that they are trying to get passed (there is to much of it to link here, start at www.theregister.co.uk with a search for RIAA). By using services like this, you are only enriching the very people who are targeting you and the things you love. Don't give them more money, it will only hurt you in the long run. When they went after napster, I said that I would not buy a CD until it played out, and if napster won, I would go back to buying CDs. If they lost, I would never buy a CD again. I have not bought a CD since. My 300+ collection collects dust. I have stopped consuming music. NPR is better radio anyway. Don't buy the 'new, friendlier' record company BS, they are sharks, and you are bleeding.
-Charlie
i've actually met with some guys from emi in the course of my work regarding secure music. they seemed to be pretty much know what's going on. not that i like these guys very much, nor the concept of drm. but they were very reasonable. they understood that any drm they put out will be immediately broken. they told me they know sdmi is crap. they understood that they can't shaft the consumer with too many restrictions or difficulties to use or transfer, or excessive charges. they understood that people want music on their portables. these guys are not engineers, but music people.
they also understood that convincing their management to give up any restrictions is not going to be easy. i would say though, that emi is the most forward looking label out there. they're probably gonna take quite a few missteps on their way, and us slashdotters are gonna beat them over the head for it. but they're actually working on it, and not trying just to fuck us over (well, not all of them). maybe one day, they'll actually find the right balance (wow, late night optimism. who woulda thunk it?)
my favorite quote: "sometimes i think 'fuck it, why don't we just give it all for free, download all you want'".