$5 Per Month Fee Proposed For Legal Music P2P

sneakyimp writes "Both Wired and Ars Technica have reports on Jim Griffin's proposal that ISPs charge each broadband customer $5 per month to subsidize the ailing music industry. The resulting fund would ostensibly 'compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels.' Although no specific version of the proposal has been referenced, a number of controversies are inherent to the plan: How is the money really divided? What happens when the MPAA, the Business Software Alliance, and various other industry groups want their own surcharge added? What about the supposed majority of broadband customers who never download illegal music? Griffin discussed the plan further at SXSW . We've previously discussed a similar proposal from the Songwriters Association of Canada.

Comments

It's the loudness war, stupid!

[Stormwatch]

Why should I buy something that, more likely than not, will be range-compressed shit?

For example, I once downloaded a Genesis compilation; I listened to some songs that I already knew from their 83 album, and immediately knew it wasn't the same thing. A quick comparison made it obvious: the new version was "squashed on the roof" -- much louder, muffled drums, too much bass, it sounded like something off a cassete tape.

Just a pic to compare: "Home By The Sea", original versus new version.

It was so awful that I deleted the damn thing. I still wanted to know their early stuff, but not in this defaced form. So I downloaded the whole albums; but now the sound quality was really good. Even their earliest records, done over 30 years ago, sounded nice and crystalline.

Let me say it again: for that compilation, someone took those beautiful songs and deliberately made them sound like an old cassete tape. For what purpose? To make them "loud".

There's the problem. Everyone does it! The way record companies produce music nowadays, everything sounds so awful that I wouldn't want most of it for free. Yet they expect me to pay for it? Hell no! I used to buy a lot of music, but now every CD is a gamble and my chances are too slim. And I doubt I'm the only one who feels the same.

Fuck you very much, record labels. You have ruined your own product, now reap the consequences!