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."

Comments

Re:As a record store owner

[hobo sapiens]

Just because you disagree with the price of something (especially something that you don't need!), doesn't give you the right to steal it.

Agreed. I have made that point here before. Nobody seems to disagree with that, except the 1337 script kiddies whose opinion doesn't matter anyhow. What the intelligent people always disagree with me on are the semantics of the word "steal". It seems a lot of people don't feel that making duplicates of an mp3 file is stealing because you did not take something tangible. Yes, information wants to be free (so they say), and since mp3 files are computer files and therefore are information, they should be free. It's the same faulty logic you see when anyone takes a line of reasoning way further than it was intended to be taken. You know, if a little vitamin C is good for me, then I should take megadoses every day, and stupid logic like that.

Going OT now...

Tom Waits ... His wonderful music...

ugh, are you serious? I downloaded a few songs from Orphans, Brawlers, and Bawlers... from eMusic. Every stinking review was glowing, so I blindly downloaded a few tracks. Is there some hobo musical genre I have missing out on? What is the appeal of some guy pretending(?) to be a hobo balladeer? I mean, why not go down to the local railyard with an 8 track recorder and record that? I am very open minded about music, but I don't get Tom Waits. Can you explain to me what you like about it? I am trying real hard here, but I just can't dig it. I know it's an opinion and that music is very subjective, but *everyone* gave it a good review (except me). What gives?