Music industry urged to lighten up

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#1

I just posted the article Music industry urged to lighten up.

The music industry faced some criticism at its own international conference this week, with one speaker telling the audience to learn from the Internet’s “dark side.”"There is…

Read the full article here:  [http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15433-Music-industry-urged-to-lighten-up.html](http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15433-Music-industry-urged-to-lighten-up.html)

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#2

Wow, 40 billion downloads a year, and 38 billion are pirated revenue stealers. That’s a lot of songs. Of course, over the air radio provides more songs worldwide every year than that, and ALL of those are revenue stealing freebies. I just don’t understand how the music industry stays in business, poor, underpaid, overworked, underappreciated souls.:rolleyes:

#3

out of 40 billion songs, you think 38 billion are actually lost sales? People only have so much cash and finite budgets, and lots of other options to spend their cash. I think even if there weren’t digital downloads, they’d be seeing less than 20 percent of that as actual losses. They tend to forget thats lot of people are willing to take it for free, if they had to shell out, thats a whole different ball game, they might want a dvd or save up for a car, or just flatass broke. I really think the amount of lost sales is a small percentage of actual pirated music.

#4

Sadly, sarcasm does not come across well in text. :slight_smile: Clearly THEY think every download is a lost sale. My comment about radio being a loss for every listen was to mock their belief that every download is a loss. :slight_smile:

#5

It’s funny how some distributors like Rhino are getting it: Give the people something they don’t already have, like remastered albums, live cuts, interviews and cover art. Talk about fighting the future, I’m surprised more labels aren’t dead at this point in time.

#6

If more and more artists decide to go it alone like Radiohead and NIN, maybe we will see more of the major record labels toppeling.

#7

The problem is that bands need the promotion that record labels provide. Without them, most people would probably never have heard of NIN, NIN wouldn’t have got the press about allowing albums to be downloaded free and the free download may not have been as successful.
A big problem for the record labels has been that they’ve been seen to be greedy. We’ve all heard about bands making albums that didn’t sell that well & have had to pay back the advance to make the album, or bands with bad lawyers who didn’t negotiate well & have made pennies per album, even though the album was a smash hit.
Until the record labels and the RIAA show good faith, nobody’s going to feel sorry for them. Trying to get the ISPs to block internet access of supposed “pirates” isn’t going to do it.
I purchased the AC/DC album when it came out because I’d like to have gotten nice cover art and lyrics, & I wanted to support the band. I got a cardboard CD case & no lyrics. That’s not very good marketing.

#8

Oh, another thing.
The price of downloads has to come down. iTunes has the right idea with $0.69 songs. A buck a song is rediculous. It’s the same price as buying the CD, which gives you a physical medium, a cheap cardboard case and some artwork. Come on, there’s no transportation cost, CD pressing costs, etc.

#9

I can’t remember the last time I paid for music. There are so many ways to listen to music legally without buying anything.

Then again I’m not a MP3 addict, I can actually do things without a MP3 player near by.

#10

Topher, the difference being is that you can buy individual tracks rather than paying $16 for a disc that might have 3 or less songs worth remembering.

The fact is, the music company has always been corruption, full of rock 'n roll pimps trying to cut into any profit that the true artists deserves, making them sign away the rights to their own songs for the enticement of having their music distrubted to the world. We always hear about artists like Radiohead willing to buck the old ways, but not the music industry (executives) who ar einterested in nothing but $$$.

#11

Ramza, you must be late 20s or older! Every kid I see @ work and college has either an MP3 player or cell phone fused to one side of their head. If you aren’t, I’m sincerely impressed, because maybe there is hope for future generations.

#12

True, but there are bands, like Ac/Dc, that I’d buy the whole album from. I paid around $13 (I see it’s about $10 now) but if I’d paid by the track, it would have been $16. Individual tracks should be around $0.80 ($1 may be okay) & albums should be $2 less than retail, since the costs are less. It’s been a while since I’ve checked prices though, so perhaps they already are.

#13

Spotify is great btw :slight_smile: