Yes, that's right - is P2P really piracy? If I download an MP3 off of the net, is that *really* a lost sale?
I'm going to make the arguement that it's not. And here's why. I've downloaded quite a bit of music, most I threw away. I downloaded much I never would have considered buying. Some of what I downloaded intrigued me to the point that I downloaded more of a particular artist. I decided I liked what I heard, and I bought the CD.
That's right - downloading music actually generated CD sales.
Now, why do you ask, did I buy the CD if I already had the songs in MP3 format? Because MP3, AAC, OGG, etc, pretty much all suck when compared to the original quality on CD. It's quite similar to recording FM radio broadcasts.
For those that say there's no quality difference, you're wrong. Your playback devices may be so bad that you can't hear the difference, but there's a very noticeable difference in quality that even mid-range audio equipment reveals without effort.
What do I mean by mid-range? Heck, even my Pioneer in-dash car CD player will reveal MP3 limitations at moderate volume (hint: if your music is louder, limitations of the source show up more readily, however, if it's so loud you're delving into speaker or amp distortion, you'll no longer notice the source limitations, you're seeing the limitations of your equipment)
If you really want to see how bad the MP3 encoding mechanism is, try encoding Nine Inch Nails Broken. It's listenable at low volumes at 256 and 320 kbps, but at moderate and higher volumes the artifacts induced by the encoding become distracting to say the least. (FYI - almost no one listens to NIN at low volumes:)
So my view is that P2P is a great way to listen to artists you otherwise might never entertain, but it certainly is no substitute for the real thing. Of course, I might not buy something I downloaded but listen to occassionally, but generally that would be something I wouldn't buy anyway, so it's still not a lost sale.
Reasonably priced per song sales, now finally being introduced, is long overdue, and may convert those few songs I have that I don't own on some media to "legal" songs.
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Yes, that's right - is P2P really piracy? If I download an MP3 off of the net, is that *really* a lost sale?
I'm going to make the arguement that it's not. And here's why. I've downloaded quite a bit of music, most I threw away. I downloaded much I never would have considered buying. Some of what I downloaded intrigued me to the point that I downloaded more of a particular artist. I decided I liked what I heard, and I bought the CD.
That's right - downloading music actually generated CD sales.
Now, why do you ask, did I buy the CD if I already had the songs in MP3 format? Because MP3, AAC, OGG, etc, pretty much all suck when compared to the original quality on CD. It's quite similar to recording FM radio broadcasts.
For those that say there's no quality difference, you're wrong. Your playback devices may be so bad that you can't hear the difference, but there's a very noticeable difference in quality that even mid-range audio equipment reveals without effort.
What do I mean by mid-range? Heck, even my Pioneer in-dash car CD player will reveal MP3 limitations at moderate volume (hint: if your music is louder, limitations of the source show up more readily, however, if it's so loud you're delving into speaker or amp distortion, you'll no longer notice the source limitations, you're seeing the limitations of your equipment)
If you really want to see how bad the MP3 encoding mechanism is, try encoding Nine Inch Nails Broken. It's listenable at low volumes at 256 and 320 kbps, but at moderate and higher volumes the artifacts induced by the encoding become distracting to say the least. (FYI - almost no one listens to NIN at low volumes:)
So my view is that P2P is a great way to listen to artists you otherwise might never entertain, but it certainly is no substitute for the real thing. Of course, I might not buy something I downloaded but listen to occassionally, but generally that would be something I wouldn't buy anyway, so it's still not a lost sale.
Reasonably priced per song sales, now finally being introduced, is long overdue, and may convert those few songs I have that I don't own on some media to "legal" songs.