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iPod Owners Not Thieves
An anonymous reader writes "Remember last year when Microsoft head Steve Ballmer said iPod owners were music thieves and their iPods were full of stolen music? It turns out they're actually less likely to download music using filesharing software than owners of other MP3 players. A lot less likely." From the article: "A survey of US and UK music buyers reveals that although 25 per cent of people admit to downloading music from file-sharing services, only seven per cent of iPod owners do so. Proving that iPod users are either scrupulously honest or more paranoid they'll get sued by RIAA than owners of lesser music players."
In my opinion, I think there is some competition to consider before making that bold statement.
My work here is dung.
So Steve Ballmer is an idiot. This is news?
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
...disposable income to spend on legal downloads than owner of lesser^H^H expensive mp3 players.
-- SIGFPE
People who have iPods have demonstrated a willingness to pay for ease of use and simplicity. That they would spend money at the iTunes Music Store to easily download music rather than go through the hassle of downloading it from a p2p network should not be surprising.
For the record, I own an iPod, so you can put me on the "Do Not Sue" list.
Sincerely,
Me
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Third option - iPod owners are liars
*ducks*
"Proving that iPod users are either scrupulously honest or more paranoid they'll get sued by RIAA than owners of lesser music players."
Or, that since they have a legal, inexpensive way to obtain the specific music that they want to play, they are more inclined to actually spend $5.00 to get five songs from five different bands instead of $16 for twelve songs from one band, with only one song that they actually want.
Or still, that the people who bought iPods coincidentally are also the same people who already have large CD collections, so they were inclined to rip and encode their music specifically so that they could play it on the iPod, rather than having to resort to scavenging the Internet for music because they were too cheap to pay for it...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Stever Job once correctly stated that the iTunes store has to compete with P2P services / pirating. They succeded - and it is bloody convinient too.
...
The iTunes store offers so far the best online music store and player combination (software and portable). So far none of the other companies have succeded in offering a better combo. The winner takes it all
After using iTunes, who wants to sift through a bunch of songs of questionable quality, infectiousness, and organization. Really, what a waste of time.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm no Apple fanboy, but I give them major kudos to pull off what the RIAA and the major labels are too stupid to understand. This was a technological and economical war from the beginning. Damn them for perverting it into a legal one as well.
Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
"A survey of US and UK music buyers reveals that although 25 per cent of people admit to downloading music from file-sharing services, only seven per cent of iPod owners do so. Proving that iPod users are either scrupulously honest or more paranoid they'll get sued by RIAA than owners of lesser music players."
Another option is that Ipod owners are scrupulously DIShonest, making their numbers a lot lower. Come on, this is like a survey of inner city people who regularly J-walk. You have three categories, the ones that do and admit it, the ones that don't and are proud of it, and the ones that do but say they don't because they are too self conscious.
I noticed that , so I said to my iPod "I promise I wont steal music , I will copyright infringe it instead"
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The iPod is closely associated with iTunes, which makes getting music legally more convenient than downloading. Also, iPod owners are likely to have more money to spend on music than owners of less expensive mp3 players.
Once you bring the price down to a certain point, the average person will pay for a legal copy.
If you have an iPod, it's safer to get songs legally. If you play songs on a PC, it's safer to download questionable content from known criminals than it is to insert a legal Sony CD.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I'm an ipod/itms user and don't have any illegal music.
... fake files, wrong tags, crappy quality - even sometimes system sounds heard during playback).
when I was younger I had lots of stuff I'd downloaded just because I could, but didn't even listen to most of it. so I got rid of all but my favourite downloaded songs. there weren't that many and from then on it just seemed easier to go to itms than the hassle of p2p (minimum share 5GB! banned for 1 hour! minimum 3 share slots! banned for 1 hour!
then the situation was either have illegal content for the sake of a handful of songs, or just replace them with legitimate versions for the sake of a couple of pints.
itunes just makes being "honest" easier than not. appealing to laziness is far more successful than appealing to respect for disgusting organisations (RIAA) or appalling laws (DMCA).
iPod Owners Not Thieves
Well then, maybe someone would like to explain to me why my iPod is engraved with the following:
To my dearest Helen, I'm sorry I gave you the clap, Gerald
Not to mention that ipod has no wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Paranoid? How about "three times more likely to lie to a potential RIAA lawyer that they download music?" Or "three times less stupid?" Perhaps, less inflammatorily, we could say "iPod owners are three times more informed about the rapacious RIAA barrators."
I don't think it counts as paranoia when they're publicly taking down 8-year-old girls and 72-year-old grandmas. It's self preservation.
John
Or that iPod users are dishonest and will lie about where they got their MP3s.
Or that iPod users are lazy and tend towards the convenience of iTunes.
Or that iPod users are technically incompetent and can't figure out P2P.
Or that the statistical sampling and analysis was flawed.
There are so many possible reasons. Why did the submitter need to state a false dichotomy?
Oh, now I see why.
are more enticed to use the bundled iTunes legal purchasing software that works well with their computer, their iPod, and the fact that they really don't understand computers? Isn't this software Darwinism? Build good software and they will come, right?
My brother got a nano and he got my dad to buy some music from iTMS, even though he had previously gotten them for free off of peer networks. He could have gotten those songs for free, but since his iPod came with iTunes, he used the included software to get some music. Songs at a reasonable price, found using software he can use. It all makes sense to me.
Get Firefox!
BMW owners found less likely to siphon gas than Ford owners.
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Actually, I was really thankful my iRiver MP3 player had radio because I've had to tune into emergency broadcast several times these last few months. I never listen to radio (and don't have a TV), but quickly found the right station and could monitor while I sat in my closet waiting for a Tornado to eat me. I also didn't grow up in a place with tornados so I didn't know what to expect or what to do if it hit.
Don't mess with Emergency Broadcasting, man
Steve Ballmer is also bald. Film at 11.
They surveyed people who bought music online, not a random sample of mp3 player owners. This doesn't take into account people who only copy music illegally.
Vote for Pedro