Now be honest, could the Spice Girls have sold any significant number of albums had they gone it on their own and distributed through the internet? Would Brittney be flashing her belly button for Pepsi or, would she be doing Country & Western in some sleazy dive in Ohio for $8 an hour?
This is supposed to be an argument for the music industry?
Seriously, though, the fact that the labels can use their market power to create stars is in fact one of the situation's more troubling aspects. There is only so much market for music in the world, and if artists like those are being pushed by the industry, then it follows that many other potentally worthwhile artists are being pushed aside.
Brittney and the Spice Girls do not have some innate 'right' to success. If an artist can't compete in an even market, then they deserve to be obscure. If there are no artists capable of making themselves into stars without a record label backing them, then we won't have any for a while.
Remember, there were stars who 'made it' before the age of big hype; the whole concept of record-label stars came about in an attempt to mimic the success of people like the Beatles or Elvis.
In an age without record labels, stardom will be more valuable and harder to reach; the stars that make it will be more talented and longer-lasting. It seems to me that this is a Good Thing(tm).
It's not that they want people to pay for songs; it's that they want people to pay them for songs. If legit internet distribution ever took off, people would be making money, sure, but it wouldn't be the record companies; they'd just be some more shmucks in a crowded field. Anyone with five bucks could set up a music distribution company, and the ones that are currently massive, powerful organizations who can dictate contracts to artists and prices to consumers would be reduced to dime-and penny operations struggling to break even.
We want that to happen. Eliminating the market power of the record labels would mean more money for artists, lower prices for consumers, and more efficent music distribution. This is the way capitalism is supposed to work.
That's just basic Econ 101.
Do you mean it sells for 400K to some NPC shopkeeper, or 400K to some other player? If you're selling it to some other player, then that doesn't matter. The issue here has to do with the total amount of platinum in the economy, not the amount individuals or guilds manage to funnel to themselves.
As I heard it, he discribed them in something he wrote. His description was so close to projects that the government was already (secretly) looking into that it got him investigated by the FBI... At first, they had trouble believing he came up with it on his own!
That could just be a myth, though.
Slashdot Mirror
This is supposed to be an argument for the music industry?
Seriously, though, the fact that the labels can use their market power to create stars is in fact one of the situation's more troubling aspects. There is only so much market for music in the world, and if artists like those are being pushed by the industry, then it follows that many other potentally worthwhile artists are being pushed aside.
Brittney and the Spice Girls do not have some innate 'right' to success. If an artist can't compete in an even market, then they deserve to be obscure. If there are no artists capable of making themselves into stars without a record label backing them, then we won't have any for a while.
Remember, there were stars who 'made it' before the age of big hype; the whole concept of record-label stars came about in an attempt to mimic the success of people like the Beatles or Elvis.
In an age without record labels, stardom will be more valuable and harder to reach; the stars that make it will be more talented and longer-lasting. It seems to me that this is a Good Thing(tm).
It's not that they want people to pay for songs; it's that they want people to pay them for songs. If legit internet distribution ever took off, people would be making money, sure, but it wouldn't be the record companies; they'd just be some more shmucks in a crowded field. Anyone with five bucks could set up a music distribution company, and the ones that are currently massive, powerful organizations who can dictate contracts to artists and prices to consumers would be reduced to dime-and penny operations struggling to break even. We want that to happen. Eliminating the market power of the record labels would mean more money for artists, lower prices for consumers, and more efficent music distribution. This is the way capitalism is supposed to work. That's just basic Econ 101.
Because as we all know, worthyness is determined by the amount of free time you are willing to spend clicking on pixelated goblins and fishmen.
Do you mean it sells for 400K to some NPC shopkeeper, or 400K to some other player? If you're selling it to some other player, then that doesn't matter. The issue here has to do with the total amount of platinum in the economy, not the amount individuals or guilds manage to funnel to themselves.
As I heard it, he discribed them in something he wrote. His description was so close to projects that the government was already (secretly) looking into that it got him investigated by the FBI... At first, they had trouble believing he came up with it on his own! That could just be a myth, though.