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The Effect of Pirated CDs
Moderation abuser writes "The real reasons music isn't selling as much as it used to, and not a lot to do with file sharing." I'm not sure that I agree that piracy is the reason for all of the music industry woes - I think creativity also has something to do with it, but those are still some huge numbers for pirated CDs.
If you look on the Eff website, it has some interesting ways in compensating the artists if you don't want to buy their CDs.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
I did in fact RTFA. But I did not make my point clear. My point was that the RIAA should admit openly that downloaders aren't a problem and that these "counterfeiters" are. They need to stop using Kazaa-users as scapegoats for their drop in sales (which, of course, is not entirely due to piracy).
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
B) If pirated CDs are to blame, why aren't there FBI raiding Chinatown's over the U.S. everyday?
They are. Commercial pirates are busted all the time.
Just because it each individual case doesnt make a slashdot headline, doesnt mean it doesnt happen.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
One thing you got to remember is that the blank CD's we pay for, some of that money goes back to the companies that make music anyhow.. same goes for DVD's..
I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
It's easier and more cost-effective to sue in the US, where they're almost certain to win, and recoup court costs as well. At the moment I happen to be living in the Czech Republic, and there's a huge problem with pirated CDs at most of the vietnamese open-air markets, esp. near the German and Austrian borders (this is not a racist remark, it is a comment on the state of affairs...) The Czech police are almost helpless to stop it -- most of the time, as soon as the police show up to raid the markets, the owners simply walk away from their stands, and the police confiscate what's on display, but arrest noone. Worse, court cases in the CR are notoriously prone to dragging out for years, so it's no wonder that RIAA wants to go after US-based downloaders.
it isn't like musical quality has notably sunk in the last few years.
yes, they're putting out less albums - but because they're marketing individual 'pop sensations' more. the trend to produce less began before the sales fell.
and it's not because 'pop music is crap' that sales are falling. this bubble-gum shlock is the predominant bulk of what people are trading online. not to mention that britney is not qualitatively divergent from marky mark and the funky bunch. or wham! or winger before that.
people need to stop pretending that file sharing isn't going to kill cd-sales. it will. just as CDs killed cassette, just as cassette killed vinyl (audophiles and their tastes notwithstanding)
the artists -do- get most of their revenue from touring and tshirts and stuff, but the RIAA exists solely to distribute music. they -do- get rich off the rights to sell CDs so naturally their business revolves around protecting their rights. particularly because they dont have the infrastructure or the expertise to control, in any small way, electronic distribution. (since mainly you just have to post mp3s and advertise, or license apple to soak up the bandwidth costs for a share of your per track cash.)
but stop pretending: sales are down because trading is easy, and no-one except people who had money before and will have money after is being effected. not because pop music is 'crap'. not because there's 'less'.
yes, p2p is killing it. and for good reason.
i do wonder though, if file sharing has had a hand in the increase in concert attendance these last few years. (note number of summer concert 'festivals' and their earnings increases)
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
or 7) Because of the definition of the word "theft"
/t
theft
\Theft\, n. [OE. thefte, AS. [thorn]i['e]f[eth]e, [thorn][=y]f[eth]e, [thorn]e['o]f[eth]e. See Thief.] 1. (Law) The act of stealing; specifically, the felonious taking and removing of personal property, with an intent to deprive the rightful owner of the same; larceny.
Note: To constitute theft there must be a taking without the owner's consent, and it must be unlawful or felonious; every part of the property stolen must be removed, however slightly, from its former position; and it must be, at least momentarily, in the complete possession of the thief.(Emphasis mine) See Larceny, and the Note under Robbery.
2. The thing stolen. [R.]
If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, . . . he shall restore double. --Ex. xxii. 4.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, (C) 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
#!/usr/bin/english
If people want to actually check out most of these bands using P2P (legitimately this time!) I recommend the FurthurNet application. They've got a list of all of the artists/concerts you can download maintained in such a way that you're only able to download legal content, and a lot of the concerts are equivalent in quality to the concert CDs some bands put out.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Pirate CDs sell more than original in Argentina. On every train station, on every main door of a college, there are informal booth offering prirated CDs. Sometimes is a table, and sometimes is just a fabric on the street with the CDs on. They have color photocopied cover. Official CDs costs around 10 USD, and illegal ones, between 1 and 2 USD. When most people earn 200 USD for month, there is no choice.
People who can't affort Internet access, buys this cheaper CDs. Almost nobody buys original CDs.
Another popular way of getting CDs, is asking them to your favorite software dealer. They send it on MP3 or wav, as you wish.
At least here, downloading music is not something RIAA should take care for. There are other issues more important for them (like the booth at every train station full of illegal CDs).
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Here is a great article about how the labels rip off their artists. Scroll down to see a breakdown of where the money goes. It doesn't go to the bands. On the other hand, it also shows how much a CD costs to produce. Everyone thinks that a CD costs only a few cents to dupe forgetting that the real price of a CD includes all the production, promotion, lawyers, etc. The Problem With Music
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
Thank you for injecting a much-needed reality check into a /. discussion on music swapping. If there's anything about your comment where I would nitpick is the use of the word "stealing". I think that copyright infringement is not "stealing", it's copyright infringement. This doesn't make it any less illegal, I just wanted to be clear.
As for conscience-clear cheap music aquisition, try out EMusic. It's not for everyone, but if you're into indie rock and/or jazz, it's well worth it. $10-$15/month for all-you-can-eat, no-DRM, 192Kb/s average VBR mp3s (encoded with LAME, no less). Support for Mac/Windows/Linux.
"Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
Heavily influenced by bands like Sly and the Family Stone, Hendrix, etc.
I've bought everything they've produced since their first album in 1988 and loved it. Some of their newer stuff is on Emusic.com, some of thier older stuff at Buymusic.com (they changed labels Atlantic to Metalblade) - or you can go to amazon to listen to samples from all their albums.
--
These guys have remained relatively unknown throughout their career, but have been acclaimed by many other musicians.
From the unofficial FAQ at kingsx.net:
keep in mind this is the same industry that brought us the boom chick boom chick of disco in the 70s and all the albums sounded the same and sales steadily declined .who did they blame? cassette tape!
the industry need look no farther than firing their consultants and A&R depts.scrapping formulas and getting real lives.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
I've bought about 15 CDs over the past 3 or 4 months - here in San Diego there are "going out of business sales" going on at Music Shops all over the place. And they are mostly big chain stores, not mom & pop shops (the mom & pop shops still sell vinyl, which will _always_ be profitable). Anyway the reason I've been buying all these CDs is that they're only $3-$5 each. Only an idiot would pay $15 for a CD nowadays.
-dbc
# Don't pay for the recording or mastering that was done for the music
Neither do record companies - the artist does
# Don't pay the artist whose music they're stealing
True but it is typically less than ten per cent of the retail price
# Don't pay for the artwork on the cd
Couple of hundred bucks mostly
# Don't pay for promotion or advertising, since that's all done by the label
Not all promotion is paid for by the label. It does on the other hand promote the artist -- see Microsoft's attitude to piracy in China (would you rather they used linux?)
# Don't pay the lawyers to research the songs to ensure you're not stealing some stupid snippet of lyrics or a partial tune, as just happened with Flaming Lips and Cat Stevens
True but music is not supposed to be welfare for lawyers.
It is unclear why CDs should be have been more expensive than vinyl or why their prices should rise in real terms. Normal economics would suggest that faling production and distribution costs should make the optimal price lower, possibly substantially, but that hasn't happened.
I would say from experience that if you don't mind dodgy quality you can get hold of movies Before they get to the theatre.
It is just slightly worrying when you get back home, wondering through customs with $1000s of dollars worth of DVDs CDs and Software in the bottom of your bag.
As for Sam Goody, if it's like the other few Sam Goody locations I have visited throughout the country, they're not going to get anywhere selling $17.99 and $18.99 CDs. I'm shocked when $15.99 is their good deal! Chains like Best Buy do lots of the selling, like the new "Sense Field" release, "Living Outside," which sells for $6.99 there and much more anywhere else. There is a lot of music out there now over the past decade or two and it is tough for them to convince you to expand your collection. The expanded music generes seem to have some impact here: Many people have a favorite set of music and buy that, but just hear the rest of the stuff on the radio. It seems that most people I know (ok, I'm a tech guy I realize) buy CDs from a store like Best Buy, which is a pain to get into and out of, so they don't buy often, or they buy from Amazon.com. Of course now some people are going the iTunes Music Store way as well.
That's pretty meaningless; 192kbps average will vary from Xing/WMA quality to practically transparent depending on the settings and version of Lame used.
Now, from their website: To encode the files on Emusic, we used LAME version 3.92. The import option that was used is -alt-preset standard.
I would have prefered version 3.90.3, but never mind; at least they're not using -r3mix
(Actually I would have prefered FLAC, but that's just me..)
Specifically, Double Vag, Double Anal. Thank god for the education I get from Trey and Matt.
-72
-Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
I'm not sure that I agree that piracy is the reason for all of the music industry woes - I think creativity also has something to do with it, but those are still some huge numbers for pirated CDs.
Are you insane? I have been to Malaysia and every CD cost $1 and instead of audio CDs a lot of times, they throw in a hundred or so MP3s on a disk.
There is a special fee you buy when you buy tapes and that extra money is redistributed to the labels (albeit not that fairly).
When you DOWNLOAD MUSIC YOU HAVE NOT PAID FOR AND HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT TO OWN, both you and the person you downloaded from have violated a copyright. Specifically, distribution rights. That is illegal. The industry is trying to prosecute you for it.
Now, what *I* object to is that people who are LEGALLY sharing files are being treated just like the criminals out there. THAT is garbage, and what's worse, their tactic is basically to abuse the high cost of lawyers and mediocre income of your average defendant to coerce people into forking over a few grand to get the suits off their backs. Innocent people are getting fucked over.
But I have no sympathy for the other 99.999999999999999999999999995% of you who are knowingly and willingly breaking the law.
Here's the best lobbying effort done in recent years. Basically, Interpol is linking terrorism with piracy of Intellectual Property. They note that it is needed much closer cooperation between police and IPR holders. And who are the IPR holders? here is their list. Yup, those guys have also bought off Interpol. Can only be impressed... :-(
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid