Category: News and Views
The other day, I saw a news report that was talking about how they're trying to crack down on not only illegal music downloading, but also for videos. In my opinion, this whole contreversy is fucking ridiculous. My view is: the music industry does not need anymore damn money. Its as simple as that. We, as the consumer, deserve to pay less for music, first of all, and besides, do you all realize how much music stars are getting paid to do what they do? Mostly rappers are getting paid in this way, which is why I despise this topic so much.
All these rappers do with their money is go out, pick up random women, pay them, and write another song based on their latest experience.
Then they go out and buy some top-of-the-line piece of shit car that makes them look sooooo cool...but now im getting off topic. Any views on this topic (not necessarily about rappers.)
I think that's what MTV would like you to believe rappers do, but surprisingly the artists get little of the money that we pay for CDs and such... most goes to the label.
James
Well, thats exactly what i mean. Even if they dont get paid that much, the music industry is sucking up all that money that they dont need.
I like file sharing because I may like a certain and want a certain song, and I don't want to spend all that money on a cd if I just like one song so yes I do file sharing for that reason.
Troy
Funny, I did write my sr essay in economics on this topic, where I used statistical analsysis to show that between 1998 and 2002 file sharing had no significant (statitistically) impact on music sales, there were even indications it may haave boosted sales and it certainly brought in new musicians that never would've been heard otherwise.
The jist of it is this. A band really gets no money for their work. If they are signed to a record label the label advances them a certain amount of money (say 100000 dollars) to record an album. This money the band only need to pay back through record sales. This is the risk the label is taking. The band is not obligated to risk any of their personal belongings, but, wait, there is a price to pay. The band spends all this money on recording their album.
Now an album whole sales for about $10 (ok this is a bit simplistic but let's say that and it is approdximately true). OUt of these $9 to $9.2 goes to the record label in ther form of promoting, manifacturing and p.r. expenses. But out of the remaining 80 cents that the artist gets for that album sold the artist will see no money whatsoever until the loan from the record label has been paid back. Thus an artist needs to sell 100000/0.8 (approx 125000) copies of their album before they even see a dime for their work. And, in all honesty, they wrote the songs, they boought the instrumnts, they played and practiced and it's not fair. In addition this gives the big lables, with their radio contacts a huge advantage because they can almost dictate what bands are played on the air weves and they are going to make usre these are their own artists, hence artists recording by themselves and without the suppot of a major label haven't had a chance to break in at all. In fact the atterney of New York has filed a law suit against the record labels for illegally promoting bands by indirectly paying djs for promoting a certain group or song.
Of course bands make money ffrom things like touring and stuff, not that much really, but I guess they sort of make a living.
So, file sharing, per say, is not nice, if you like the song respect the artist who is living for this made the song, created these emotions that you're feeling through his/her effort, but, yes, it's also true the record labels suck up huge profits. And another side to this story is how they aggressively promote perfectly talentless people who look good in a bikini (well girls mostly obviously) and don't write their own lyrics nor songs but use their body to make money for the label. Those people have nlittle to no talent and I have little respect for them (I'm not playing a name game really, since everyone has different taste). I don't feel those people should get paid very much really, they're not creating the musifc from scratch.
So, yes, it's a tough call ;) if anyone's interested I have an 80-page discussion on this <grin> so watch out.
cheers
-B
Wow, I never knew bands were deprived of their earnings that much! How harsh. As for file sharing, I'm always scared to do it, I don't want to break the law. Lol I'm so dumb ...
Caitlin
um wildebrew, your discussion and arguments are very impressive. "file sharing is not nice." Oh please. Stop being a hypocrit.
Acosha
Thank you for your contribution, the discussion had nothing to do with my personal habits. And let me actually point out even if I do a lot of album down loading I make a point of buying the albums that I actually like listening to, and as a consscious consumer I feel it's partly my right to do so. I mean if there is only one good song on an album and the artist is making me pay $12 for a good song + 12 awful ones I'm not buying it. If the artist did a good job and his/her populoarity is not solely based on rcord label promotion type things I actually go to the store and buy the album, and the fact I prefer listening to the mp3s on my computer have nothing to do with it.
So, anyways, I would hope you had something more constructive to say about this .. but oh well
Constructive? Ok, I'll say this. File sharing is wrong, people! Don't do it! it's so wrong, deadly wrong, goes up there on the list with murder and cheating even. *smiles* j/k. no offense wildebrew.
oh right. I will agree with wildebrew. Yes, lets say, you spent almost one month of your time making a song, practiced a bunch of times, even worked hard to make that song be as sactisfartory as you wanted, spent a lot money trying to get a studio quality sound, and contracting some people, pluss, paying for the CD recording? isn{t that enough fo you to buy the CDS? but lateli there has been created out so bad music that I would ratter download the older songs I like because some DJ's created dumped and damaged up versions from original songs. But, in the other hand, what can we do about it if people just connects their CD players to their computers and record all these songs? or, perhaps, extract them from the original CD? and, the filesharing method is so popular? hmm, just use it, if its going to be the new trend. But, it also could preven more artists from making more music, and we would live without music unless the filesharing is able to control itself, which would be a dream.
Thanks for letting me express my coments on this, as this post is referring to.
I don't file-share, but my sister did. Like Wildebrew, I would think it's OK if there's only one song out of a CD that I liked, and the rest I wasn't into. But I mainly try to buy CD's that have "The Best of" Or "Greatest Hits" because those are usually the ones with songs from all the other albums. Or if I'm going to buy a regular album, I will see if it has at least 3 or 4 songs I like because then I know I'm paying for at least that many songs, and I soon get curious to listen to the other songs and usually I end up liking those also. *smiles* So I would think that it would be best to see how many songs by a certain artist you like, and if you could find that on one or a set of CD's then it wouldn't be a big thing to buy it, but if it's just like one song, or if it's something that's really hard to find, it would be all right to download. Just my opinion. *smiles*
Leilani
I used to file share, but I didn't do it to just collect full albums on my hard drive. Mostly I looked for rare things or things not available on CD and that sort of thing. I really still prefer physical CDs if it's something I like. I still kind of think of artists' work in terms of albums and not individual isolated songs.
well i also do agree with the one song and the whole album thing, its reasonable and OK for me.
Agree with Lou, but I'm still scared to do it. Lol.
Caitlin
Caitlen, I sent you a message on this, they will only get you if you share a thousand or more songs, but if you're just downloading without sharing anything, you're in the clear, because I still do it, and will continue to do it as long as the ruling that came down here in canada as of march31 of this year still stands. Basically the industry tried and failed to take thirty people to court saying they "pirated", but the judge through out the case saying they didn't show any evidence at all, so it's 100% totally legal here in canada.
ok, here we go, I feel that file sharing is fine and shouldn't be made illegal, it's the people's choice, and furthermore I also feel that the rriaor whatever there name is can go to hell and shove the lawsuits up there ass! I do a large amount of file sharing and I'll continue to do so until I chose to stop not when others want me to. Thanks, ray!