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French Government May Subsidize Music Downloads
angry tapir writes "The European Commission has approved a French program to subsidize legal music downloads for young people. The Carte Musique scheme gives €25 (US$35) to French residents aged 12 to 25 to spend on music downloads or subscription services. Young people can purchase a €50 card for just €25, with the balance paid by the state."
for the next 2 years while this is in effect, the online music services will be raising their prices to milk the system.
They most likely won't but I wouldn't put it past those seeing this as a good money grab opportunity.
Our taxes are already spent on plenty of really really dumb stuff, last thing we need is "free" music downloads. Think of those poor sorry record companies though, how are they supposed to make any money?
How many cards can I get and can I buy my own music with it from my own 'label'?
25€ to be spent in WHICH music store ? iTunes, Amazon, Napster ?
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Musical socialism?
France has regular riots with minorities, an economy down the drain, one hell of a reputation with the deportation of Roma and now it gives a 200 million euro subsidy to the music industry?
Just WTF?
Is his wife payed for by the music lobby? And it still requires people that in the plan are claimed to be unwilling to pay for music, to pay for music. Just not so much. Once...
And why does the state have to pay for this? Can't the music industry itself offer a discount action? Why must the average french taxpayer pay for 50% off for some kid for an American song with the money going abroad?
This isn't even corruption anymore. It shows a level of detachment from reality in the French government that is closer to insanity. "Let them eat cake", at least showed an awareness that the issue was related to food. This proposal doesn't even grasp. "42, beezlebug for I am, bibble", Marie Antoinette was heard to say, just before her head came off. Insanity.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
How is that not illegal state aid under EU law? Because they dont target specific content providers? Sounds highly dubious.
Note that this is "may" in the sense of "is permitted to," rather than "might."
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Here be Dragons
Where does the French government "earn" it money from? The French government isn't subsidising squat, the French people are.
Hope is the currency of fools
French government subsidises breathing air. You will be able to buy a €50 card for just €25, the rest of which will be paid for by the state. Any guess how many takers there will be?
In a normal market, that would lead to lower prices.
Even in an abnormal market, it will lead to lower prices eventually.
(There are also more movies than you can ever see now, more tv shows, more books).
Unless the music, book, movie, etc. is spectacularly special, I'll choose the less expensive one first.
I stopped paying over $10 for DVD's several years ago. Actually, I mostly just stopped buying DVD's as I realized they were clogging up the house and I was never going to watch most of them again.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
'Free' music is your god given right, so much so they government even gives it to you as a social service?
what happens when those cards run out (quickly)? Yea a bunch of 'kids' who now think they are entitled to it are going to steal it and have a whole new mindset about doing so
Young people can purchase a €50 card for just €25, with the balance paid by the taxpayers.
This certainly sounds like the perfect deal for the record companies though -- basically state-sponsored welfare for them.
I wonder what I'd have to do to get a product listed on the "government gift certificate" list.
Can the french government get any worse? First they implement the 3 strikes law.
Now they will throw 25 million euros a year (according to their estimates) - in order to pay the music industry. Why not grab the 25 million and use them to build more parks, or reduce homelessness, or put into education?
Answer: Because there aren't any 'homelessness lobbies'
Vote Pirate Party in the next elections. It's the only sane thing to do.
No sig today...
Cut out the middlemen and give it directly to recording industry lobbyists.
Ya, I see where this is going. What, people in the late 20's and up don't listen to music? Oui oui, it's le racism! And what happens when the cash is gone? They won't need to download any more music? I honestly can't fathom how this helps anyone except for the same music publishers who have raped us with their music prices for decades. You know what this really is? Some deal was made behind closed doors.
... until the RIAA decides that they want that money the customers saved thanks to the subsidies and sues the legit downloaders, despite having received government grant money for that very amount.
Why dont they just write a cheque to the record industry and cut out the middle man.
Dump the middleman who is profiting from the hard work of the musicians and producers and just buy the music directly from the artist.
For example: Purchase Radiohead In Rainbows for 7.5 pounds or $12 US.
Seems fair to me.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Not all teenagers are obsessed with music.
Why can't Jean-Paul use his €25 to buy books or clothes?
about the dangers of letting their population suck too much from the government entitlement tit. Odd, since riots over pension cuts are shutting down Paris right now. "Oui oui, we can't afford to pay people to retire at age 35 any more, but we CAN give them free music! Let them eat iTunes!"
This is just sick, it's sick that any government would subsidize any business ever at all.
You can't handle the truth.
I hate the homeless ... ness problem that plagues this city.
If this crazy idea passes, perhaps a free-as-in-freedom organization such as Musopen could sell downloads of free music to let people direct these subsidized "profits" to a good cause?
The music industry has profited immensely from the basic human need to share with others.
Targeting teenagers who have no defense at all is the basic business model, turning them into sales representatives for the label on a massive scale.
It worked extremely well when copies were poor quality, basically acting as a teaser, produced at no cost to the label.
Now they have this terrible dilemma, how to exploit the same weakness when copies are bit perfect?
Well you cant, not without perverting the internet itself. A free internet is not compatible with that business model.
So if you find yourself tearing up over the plight of the music "industry", you should support packet inspection, 3 strikes, censorship etc.
You better have a copyright lawyer on standby, because there are countless ways you can infringe, without even knowing!
If on the other hand you think the internet is too important to twist to serve 1 slimy group of people (I guess it shines through where I stand), then you should not let the music lobby affect the internet or anything you do. Do not give them more money!
There have been music for quite a few centuries now, I doubt there will be silence, maybe a few less billionaire musicians.
This is utterly stupid, why should the government (ie TAXPAYERS) pay content distributors?
If anything, the government should put pressure on those distributors to lower prices, not pay them off.
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The good news is that young people can now purchase music with a government subsidy. The bad news is that the subsidy only applies to classical music.
Art is suppose to be something governments try to suppress, which gives it more, pardon my french, séduire. Having the government approve your art is like having your mother approve your sexual technique.
"We welcome initiatives from member states to increase the availability of music online at a lower price for consumers and through legal distribution channels. Music online is certainly a driver for the success of the Internet and for economic development," said Almunia.
You know what will do that, without any extra money from the people? Just put copyright back to sane terms or abolish it altogether. Stop criminalizing a whole generation of people and stop cutting families off the internet based on accusations only.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
what a surprise?
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greed, fear & ego (in any order) are unprecedented evile's primary weapons. those, along with deception & coercion, helps most of us remain (unwittingly?) dependent on its' life0cidal hired goons' agenda. most of our dwindling resources are being squandered on the 'wars', & continuation of the billionerrors stock markup FraUD/pyramid schemes. nobody ever mentions the real long term costs of those debacles in both life & any notion of prosperity for us, or our children. not to mention the abuse of the consciences of those of us who still have one, & the terminal damage to our atmosphere/planet (see also: manufactured 'weather', hot etc...). see you on the other side of it? the lights are coming up all over now. the fairytail is winding down now. let your conscience be your guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. we now have some choices. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on your brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.
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"The wealth of the universe is for me. Every thing is explicable and practical for m
Ahhhh.....Socialism at it finest! What a great way to spend taxpayers money!
Can't wait to see it's impact in over the next 10 years.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My local college continues to subsidize music for students by way of free, unsecured wi-fi internet and bittorrents.
Nice to see that the French government supports badly suffering music business.
It's unreal. The French government needs to raise the retirement age to, a still absurdly young, 62. They've been cutting healthcare coverage and benefits for years now. I had family members who've had to get private insurance to augment what the government has cut. But apparently they have the means to do something as stupid as subsidize music downloads.
There are all the absurd subsidies to a wide variety of industries. The government cut the work week back but forced companies to maintain current salaries with the delusion this would somehow increase jobs. They made it excessively difficult to fire employees, particularly college graduates, in the hope of providing job security and instead increased unemployment. The French government, and quite a few other European governments along with them, have created this expectation of handouts amongst their citizens. They can't make necessary cuts now because the unions all take to the streets and shut down the nation. But it seems like for every sensible measure there are several stupid ones which offset it.
This isn't an inherent failing of socialism. It's socialism applied stupidly. I'd argue it's quite difficult to keep a socialist nation from spiraling out of control with excessive handouts but the system certainly has some benefits.
People here seem to be forgetting that the American standard for conservative is quite different from what is considered conservative in Europe. A conservative in Europe is still heavily socialist. Although, the US is a lot more socialist than Americans seem to realize. A corporate handout is just as socialist as national healthcare.
Does this mean we will be seeing a huge influx of music cards showing up on eBay that are worth 50, but selling for 30 or 40?
The world is how you make it
+1 Funny, but what Musopen actually does is provide Free recordings of classical works (Bach et al) - even if the music composition is way too old to be under copyright, a new performance of it is still copyrighted in that regard, so Musopen addresses that issue.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
likely the french music industry pressured the government to give them these handouts, but in all reality, THE CURRENT SYSTEM MUST DIE so that a new and better system of music distribution and sales can replace it. Time to kill the fucking music industry dinosaurs.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
"All you can eat" music plans are substantially less than €25. Why doesn't ask "unlimited play" providers to bid on the purchase of a blanket license to everyone under 18. Then the music companies get paid, the kids get free music, it winds up costing the state the same or less than the current crazy plan, and everybody's happy. Except maybe the lawyers.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
That could have been true a decade or two ago, but not so much now, now that there is a president with so many close friends in the music industry / distribution industry...
In Canada, we put a tax on blank CDs and DVDs, to skim off some of the "illegal" copying. Almost no-one today uses a CD, and from the web, if anything is being downloaded, it goes from hard-disk to your music player or remains on the hard drive. So, we do not see the government rescinding the tax ever, it becomes another milk cow.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Why does the government, representing that of the people, choose the option which costs them extra? Wouldn't any reasonable government change its Laws in a situation like this?