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Study Suggests Music Industry Embrace Piracy
unassimilatible writes to tell us that according to the Financial Times, the music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites. A recent study of the recent Radiohead album release found that huge numbers of illegal downloads actually helped the band's popularity and, by extension, concert ticket sales. "Radiohead's release of In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-want basis last October generated enormous traffic to the band's own website and intense speculation about how much fans had paid. He urged record companies to study the outcome and accept that file-sharing sites were here to stay. 'It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want,' he said." Update 19:46 GMT by SM: Several readers (including the original author) have written in to mention that it isn't stressed enough that this study was engaged by the music industry itself, making the findings that much more interesting. Take that as you will.
Not very many people know this, but the RIAA almost went bankrupt in the 30s with Radio, because they didn't have any licensing fees or "royalties" associated with it. And people stopped buying records because they could listen to it on the radio.
The RIAA should embrace technology. Because that is where the world is headed. Any idiot can see this. So instead of fighting, go with the flow, because you cannot change people. No matter how much you sue, how much fucking money you waste trying to convince people they are stealing if they think of the song in their head.
I hereby kick the RIAA in the nuts.
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It helps their artists (and them as well), but it also helps artists who are not uinder contract with its members.
The RIAA has radio and empty-v to advertise its wares, as well as internet radio and P2P. Their competetion (the independants) only has internet radio and P2P. Killing internet radio and P2P is a blow against the indies, and since the RIAA has radio and empty-v, they can do without the internet. Their competetion can't.
What they are doing is blatantly illegal, but the government is their pawn. We, the People, are defenseless.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
People want *everything* for free.
I don't want everything for free. In fact I have very little pirated content in my music collection - there is some, but it's gotta be less than 10%, maybe less than 5%.
Much of my music collection was bought years ago, before downloading MP3 was even an option. These days, I only really "follow" a handful of mainstream artists and buy CDs when new ones are released. I do this only grudgingly, especially in those cases where the artist releases under a RIAA label. My preference is to buy indie music, preferably at a gig where the artist is playing and I can literally hand cash to them and tell them how much I enjoyed the show.
In general, my response to the RIAAs tactics - even though I'm not a "downloader" - has been to shun them and the bands they work with.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
The music industry (and the movie industry) has a business model where they control the conduit between the "talent" and the "customer." They make their money by controlling that conduit ... we have a number of laws that outline the dirty tricks used by these folks to control the distribution conduit, right up to the control interface on your wallet. The Canadian blank-media tax basically siphons cash out of your wallet regardless of your music/entertainment purchases, and gives the lion's share of the funds to ... wait for it ... the distribution cartels. They have a plan for distributions to artists, but that's after they've taken their cut.
Any proposal that lessens their ability to control the market will be opposed quite vigorously. They already know they're obsolete. What makes you think they're going to give up voluntarily?
I have to disagree...
Here at Brazil there are dozens of local bands that I never heard about, but are able to market themselves and earn money. These bands basically perform at regional shows, sell their albuns themselves and basically are ignored by the mainstream music industry. The music is basically "pirated" by the artists themselves, because it's sold on a such informal way directly by the band or by street vendors that copy and resell the albums as much as they want to.
Eventually some of this bands get attention from the general public and become know nationwide... And some even internationally, see the Calypso band for an example... not my kind of music, but they managed to make some shows on Europe and USA! And this without the help of any major label.
See, if a kitschy band from the brazilian countryside (hey, by countrysite I mean near the f*sk amazon forrest!) can reach international success all by themselves... Well, I think Record Labels are no longer necessary!
---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
Actually they probably could,they would just have to go back to the "old" way of doing things. My mom talks about the way bands worked when she was a kid,and how you would get one "semi-famous" act,along with up to a dozen smaller acts. The smaller acts would all have self pressed 45 records for sale to the audience after the show,and the concerts were such a good deal price wise that it left the kids with plenty of money to snatch up those 45s the bands were selling.
I think going back to a more "carnival" atmosphere,with the bands having little booths to sell cds,t-shirts,keyrings,etc would work,and they would end up with a lot more money than selling themselves to a record company. I know that when i went on a southern tour with the college band I was playing with we were getting between $400-800 a night easy,just from selling our wares to the audience. And there were plenty of other ways to promote yourself. We would put up "Win one of the bands guitars!" flyers around before a show and take a cheap Kramer that we bought online and play it for the last 3 or 4 songs. After which we would sign it and have a raffle and everyone who bought any of our merchandise got a ticket for each item bought. Sales went up a good 40% and the fans loved it.
So yes,I think it can work for the little guys too,they just can't sit on the butts and expect the money fairy to drop a sack on their lap. They have to be willing to hustle and put in the effort,but the rewards are well worth it. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.