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Record Store Owners Blame RIAA For Destroying Music Industry
techdirt writes "It's not like it hasn't been said many times before, but it's nice to see the NY Times running an opinion piece about the RIAA from a pair of record store owners which basically points out how at every opportunity, the RIAA has made the wrong move and made things worse: 'The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today it's not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.' It's not every day that you see a NY Times piece use the word 'boneheadedness' to describe the strategy of an organization."
Shamelessly plagiarized from the internets.
eBay is also a massive factor in the collector's market.
The problem is the RIAA is already trying to kill them too. They have convinced the Copyright Royalty Board to increase the royalties for entities that stream and/or distribute music online, they have removed the lower royalties that were available to small businesses. Worst of all they have imposed a $500 fee "per channel" for all broadcasters. So a service like last.fm which provides a different lineup of music to each user might have each individual user stream defined as a "Channel" and be forced to pay $500 per user based on this model.
- radio-copyright-royalty-board-releases-decision-ra tes-are-going-up-significantly.html
Many people are calling this the end of Online Commercial Broadcasts.
You can read more about this here:
http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/archives/internet
Not really. Kids, and less time, came later. I stopped buying because I was offended by the presumption that I was returning CDs after copying them. And I stopped buying because, for classical music, there is no very good way of deciding whether you really like an interpretation, except by listening to it from beginnig to end carefully. I did not want to feed a lottery $18 at a time.
last.fm is located in the U.K. and is not affected by the streaming royalties. In any case, I believe that is being looked at again. Hopefully, we can get some sanity in that process. But sometimes we might have to sink to the bottom in order to get things better. Once they lose enough money and it is shown that they are attacking even legitimate businesses, they will deserve the death they so richly deserve. Businesses who can't evolve with the market deserve to die. I hope to God that the U.S. government doesn't interfere and recognize that entertainment will always be around. We've had it since the dawn of man; hell even monkeys know how to entertain themselves. :-)
sri
The parent notes that the grandparent ("I am a record store owner blah blah blah") is just a copy-n-paste job . Which I suppose is oddly appropriate given the subject.
(BTW, if original author is around, books are EASIER to transfer over the net -- but most people like the physical product because it offers added value over just the content.)
He was being sarcastic.
I propose a new mod : -0 Sarcastic Bait.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The RIAA only exists as a cooperative braindump of the largest labels.
Labels such as Matador who actively refuse to be a part of the RIAA (and have gone to great lengths to show this) actually have strong sales growth.
Surprised?
heh
Stew
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Some of us prefer to buy albums because we love the BANDS not just the SINGLES. If you don't have the patience to listen to an entire album, then that's fine---go to itunes and get your catchy pop single. However, if you have a bit of taste and enjoy hearing what the artists have to say in a non-ADD manner, then upgrade to the album. And for fuck's sake, listen to it at one time...you might actually enjoy the experience.
I think the Grateful Dead were one of the highest grossing bands on tour of all time yet they never had that many mainstream hits. They also allowed people to copy their music like crazy.
Even if the death of the CD and record industry comes, there will always be stadiums/concerts/etcetera that have to be filled. Artists of greater talent (or popularity) will fill the bigger venues, as it is now, and make their money this way. You have not really explained why this will die - people will always want to go to events.
I cringe to bring this example up, but the ratings of American Idol still show music is very much a profitable business (even if that is mixed with drama and whatnot).
I'm a 17 year old kid, I listen to classical music. I'm actually right with all of you guys complaining about the crappy music being pumped out. It all sounds the same, it all sounds bad, the lyrics lack meaning, there is no variety. I do not go to the stores and buy music, but at the same time I don't pirate music. I get better quality music by downloading works freely available under Creative Commons than any of the stuff they want me to buy. There is a wonderful selection of Electronic music freely available at this website, I listen to this most of the time: http://www.8bitpeoples.com/index.html and this: http://www.jamendo.com/en/
There is a great article posted on Baen's site about media pirating. It basically says anything I could possibly say but better. It comments on how badly the situation has been handled, how most artists should love the free exposure, and also states that the consumer and tax dollar should not be responsible for the music industry. If you are interested, it is part of the Prime Palaver by Eric Flint. Go to http://www.baen.com/library/ and the link is on left side of page - the article is #11 in the series (dated 9/16/2002 which shows that this is no new thing).
Incidentally - it is posted as part of the comments for their free library. That's right free. You don't even have to register. Is there anything better than a FREE BOOK? They have over 60 titles from some big name sci-fi and fantasy authors available to read online 'cause they practice what they preach. A perfect example of how giving people a chance to experiment with new authors (or musicians) will actually increase your sales.