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RIAA, This Is Earth, Please Come In!
ccnull writes "You might remember George Ziemann as the musician who found his own music banned from eBay because it was recorded on CD-R. Now he's back with a new rant about the RIAA's statistics, which blame piracy for the dire condition of the music industry. What's to blame? Price hikes and fewer titles. The latest rant (including analysis of the RIAA's own data) is mainly circulating by email, here's a readable link. (As an interesting side note, Ziemann says that songs are really just ads for CDs, and thus should be freely traded.)"
We all know why the music and entertainment industry is in a slump. It's not P2P or piracy...
It's the public's insatiable appetite for BOY BANDS and VIN DIESEL MOVIES!
We need more! These fine artists are simply not producing enough content to satiate the public.
There are still a few television shows that have not been made into feature-length movies. There are still more country tunes that need to be written about rodeos and lost love. How about an epic triology featuring Garfield? What's with the lull in "rogue cop" screenplays? I need MORE talking animal movies featuring Eddy Murphy! It's been almost a month since Tupac released an album! Hollywood! Are you listening??
Will the industry get it? I guess time will tell.
Stat Person: "How many Britney Spears CD did you buy?"
Consumer: "None, I don't like her songs"
-Marked as pirate
Stat Person: "What is your current occupation?"
Consumer: "Student"
-Marked as pirate, twice
Stat Person: "What was your last Xmas gift?"
Consumer: "a 32x CD burner"
-Marked as pirate, 32 times
Stat Person: "Why are you returning that CD?"
Consumer: "It won't work on my computer or my Discman"
-Marked as pirate
Jokes aside, Filesharing obviously does put somewhat of a dent into business. Given, there are people out there unwilling to buy regardless of source. However, not being the extreme, it is possible to capitalize on this massive market. Given at a reasonable price and great availability structure, I can vision people buying their music in ways of files rather than CDs. I am convinced that it's their persistance to resist the trend that led to their losses.
Filesharing is a catalyst, not a problem or solution. If they can harness the idea into a structure, it's a solution. If they continue to ignore where technology is going, then it's a problem (on their end). Someone else will capitalize on that market.
Ships with nuclear reactors count as 8 ships.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Record labels have a new secret weapon that will make piracy impossible.
--This sig is in beta. Please let us know abut any errors you find.
One involes killing people, the other doesn't. Most reasonable people are against killing humans. But then you've got Saddam, Al Qaida, etc, who obviously see things differently and WOULD say that it is fine.
And, of course, George W. Bush.
Tupac isn't dead I see him all the time. The government has him put up in a small town in Tennessee. I saw him at the county fair eating funnel cake and he got powdered sugar all over his face but he didn't have a napkin. Then he lifted up his shirt to wipe it off and there was the "Thug Life" tattoo. My jaw nearly hit the ground.
I went up to him and was just chit chatting to see what he did for a living, etc... Just trying to draw out information. He claimed to have recieved an inheritance and moved from chicago to live on a farm in the country. I finally gave up my rouse and told him I knew who he really was. At first he was a little set back and claimed people told him he looked like that guy all the time.
I was finally able to assure him that I would not be posting this to slashdot (sucker) and he owned up to being Tupac but I should continue to call him Mitch. He has been making recordings since 6 months after his death through a studio in Atlanta.
He seemed like a nice enough guy...
Wow... looks like it's gotten pretty bad out there, eh?
Covert terrorist activities now uncovered in Iraq were far more serious than even the staunchest Bush advocate could have feared. US Marines in Baghdad today (Monday 4/14/03) uncovered secret bunkers containing many tens of thousands of illegal copies of works of American intellectual property.
Captain Pitalist of the US Marines commented on the seriousness of the situation: "Saddam's regime has already defrauded the American recording industry out of billions of dollars, without us even knowing it. Had this been allowed to continue much longer, the entire US economy would have been in ruins."
Said a spokesperson for the Whitehouse: "We expected to find a few WMDs, hell, maybe even a nuclear missile or two, but this... All I can say is we're lucky... we're all damn lucky this was caught right now. It doesn't bear thinking about, how many livelihoods would have been lost..."
The RIAA isn't really stupid per se. They're just faced with the following scenario:
...And... uh... There's Internet Piracy! Yes, that's it.
Mr. Big Bucks: My record sales are slipping. Make them better again.
RIAA: Well, there's a few things affecting your sales. There's your own high prices and lackluster quality...
Mr. Big Bucks: Are you planning on getting paid?
RIAA:
Mr. Big Bucks: Guess which one we can do something about.
RIAA: High prices?
Mr. Big Bucks: You are clearly delerious from the lack of money in your pockets. Here's a few million. Feel better now?
RIAA: Oh, we go after piracy?
Mr. Big Bucks: Excelsior.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.