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Old 8th February 2010   #181
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Quote:
Originally Posted by olivia_nb View Post
Yeah but they can't, so innovate. Quit whining. Move on.
the innovation is coming - in anti-piracy.

in case you missed this...

Verizon ends service of alleged illegal downloaders | Digital Media - CNET News

"Sharing" is no longer an ambiguous issue as in "sharing isn't a crime, prove to me it's a crime". It's a crime, it's been proven.

Fine. Next.

Let's move on to change the law for more appropriate fines and punishments, but let's end the debate about whether there is crime or not in the first place.


NET Act: 17 U.S.C. and 18 U.S.C. as amended (redlined)

The NET Act amends the definition of "commercial advantage or private financial gain" to include the exchange of copies of copyrighted works even if no money changes hands and specifies penalties of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. It also creates a threshold for criminal liability even where the infringer neither obtained nor expected to obtain anything of value for the infringement.

The act raised the levels of statutory damages in civil cases to $750 - $30,000 per work (and up to $150,000 per work in case of willful infringement).


Biden's Briefing: Media, Anti-Piracy 'Big Dogs' Convene... — Digital Music News
Biden's Briefing: Media, Anti-Piracy 'Big Dogs' Convene...

Quote:
The US-based anti-piracy battle has so many chapters ahead, and the appointment of 'IP czar' Victoria Espinel is just the beginning. On Tuesday afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden hosted a roundtable to discuss the administration's ongoing anti-piracy strategy, and details are just starting to emerge.

The meeting was a collection of 'big dogs,' according to one 'Inside-the-Beltway' insider, and the attendee list included Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and US Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

That was just the beginning, as top CEOs from a swath of major media companies (studios, television, book publishing, newspaper, music) were also on deck. On the music side, the cast included Edgar Bronfman, CEO, Warner Music Group; Linda Bloss-Baum, Vice President, Warner Music Group; Zachary Horowitz, President & COO, Universal Music Group; Matthew Gerson, Executive Vice President, Universal Music Group; Mitch Bainwol, Chairman & CEO, RIAA; David Israelite, President & CEO, NMPA; and Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, National Executive Director, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

The 'other side,' including technology, ISP, and consumer representatives, were not invited.

So what was discussed? One insider characterized the meeting as 'introductory in nature,' while noting that 'enough big dogs were present' to stir some serious action. But Biden clearly took the side of media holders, pointing to a problem with 'flat unadulterated theft' that 'should be dealt with,' while calling for the Justice Department to coordinate anti-piracy efforts at a local level.

Additionally, Attorney General Eric Holder called for an international meeting to iscuss the issue, a stance that makes sense given the borderless nature of file-sharing technologies.

Perhaps all of this is too late for the recording industry, though Hollywood is just starting to get energized. "Once Hollywood gets freaked out, this whole thing goes to another level," another executive relayed. Perhaps that moment has already arrived.

The complete attendee list:
  • Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States
  • Eric Holder, United States Attorney General
  • Gary Locke, United States Secretary of Commerce
  • Janet Napolitano, United States Secretary of Homeland Security
  • Robert S. Mueller, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • John T. Morton, Assistant Secretary, United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security
  • David Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, United States Patent & Trademark Office
  • Douglas A. Smith, Assistant Secretary, Office of the Private Sector, Department of Homeland Security
  • Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Director, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, The White House
  • Mark J. Sullivan, Director, United States Secret Service
  • Michael Lynton, Chairman & CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment
  • Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. Entertainment
  • Carol Melton, Executive Vice President, Time Warner Inc.
  • Philippe Dauman, Chairman & CEO, Viacom
  • DeDe Lea, Executive Vice President, Viacom
  • Jeffrey Zucker, CEO, NBC Universal
  • Rick Cotton, General Counsel, NBC Universal
  • Alec French, Vice President, NCB Universal
  • Edgar Bronfman, CEO, Warner Music Group
  • Linda Bloss-Baum, Vice President, Warner Music Group
  • Brian Murray, President & CEO, Harper Collins
  • Zachary Horowitz, President & COO, Universal Music Group
  • Matthew Gerson, Executive Vice President, Universal Music Group
  • Michael Regan, Executive Vice President, News Corporation
  • Richard Bates, Senior Vice President, The Walt Disney Company
  • Toni Bush, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
  • Daniel Glickman, Chairman & CEO, Motion Picture Association of America
  • Mitch Bainwol, Chairman & CEO, Recording Industry Association of America
  • Matthew Loeb, International President, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States
  • Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, National Executive Director, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
  • Taylor Hackford, President, Directors Guild of America
  • Jay Roth, National Executive Director, Directors Guild of America
  • David Israelite, President & CEO, National Music Publishers’ Association
  • David White, National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator, Screen Actors Guild
  • Alan Hoffman, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Vice President
  • Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Office of Management & Budget
  • Terrell McSweeny, Domestic Policy Advisor, Office of the Vice President
  • Andrew Kline, Senior Advisor for Crime Policy, Office of the Vice President
  • Susan Davies, Associate Counsel to the President
  • James Garland, Counselor to the Attorney General and Deputy Chief of Staff, Department of Justice
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Old 8th February 2010   #182
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Originally Posted by olivia_nb View Post
I guess that's the opposite of what I was leveling, that they sounded too entrenched and married to the current system. I don't suggest it's simple or obvious, especially when you're invested in another way of life. I'm talking about changing the product and moving away from recorded data to an experience. We still get that in a theater or a concert hall. I'm not a technological genius so I'm going to claim it's a super simple solution, but I don't think it's impossible either. I still go to photo exhibits even though I can see it all online. That's an experience.
please don't confuse that fact that I support copyright, and see piracy as a cancer to the legitimate marketplace to imply that I'm anti-progress.

I'm just not a person who believes legitimate business should accept being raped by piracy, nor do I believe that piracy helps to create incentives for new legitimate business models - which can also be stolen wholesale.

If I could get my hands on Google's code and build an identical site with the exact same functionality do you think the $750 billion monster would allow it?

The support and protection of all forms of IP including trademarks, patents and copyrights are essential to a healthy free market economy. To say otherwise is to be either intellectually dishonest, or incapable of understanding the basic foundation of economics. At worst these arguments are sponsored by only those would profit from stealing from others.

the solution will come in the cloud and anti-piracy. we're moving to an access over ownership model.

there is too much media to contextualize in meaningful way. what people will want, what will be valuable are tools to filter and organize the content.

we're moving from content being king to context being king (although content will still be a prince).

Apple's LaLa will be interesting to this end.

Ultimately I believe that Spotify, Pandora and other streaming sites are going to get retooled - the economics of these are essentially comparable to terrestrial radio - ie - this is not a replacement for recorded music revenues.

I predict songs will be edited to under two minutes and/or have embedded audio ads cross faded over the song as if you were listening to the radio - you just can't give away the thing you are trying to sell without editing or "polluting" it - this will be the new term "polluted" content available for free, "clean" content available at a premium cost.

however, until piracy can be managed all bets are off - because no new model that can be developed will be immune to piracy - this is the fundamental problem.

This isn't about going backwards, it's about finding a sustainable revenue model for artists to create PROFIT going forward - with or without labels.

For all the hype around here about NEW Models it always comes back to the same OLD conversation...

OLD MODEL LESS MUSIC SALES REVENUE : IE Playing Live and Selling Merch - both of which are not new, the only thing that is new is there is now NO REVENUE FROM MUSIC SALES...

is this so hard to understand?
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Old 8th February 2010   #183
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Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios View Post
For all the hype around here about NEW Models it always comes back to the same OLD conversation...
Playing Live and Selling Merch - both of which are not new, the only thing that is new is there is now NO REVENUE FROM MUSIC SALES...

is this so hard to understand?
No.
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Old 8th February 2010   #184
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Originally Posted by haymedic View Post
agreed with you up until 'vanity'. i think the vane people are the ones that don't really care what the music sounds like, as long as they get their face on TV. the people who want to make great artwork have never been the vane ones... they're the artists.
In my finitely limited experience, the artists I refer to as 'vain ones', are the artists I work with who understand that ultimately (even though the resultant culmination of our work together may have zero chance of ever 'recouping' or even breaking even) they do care, and are in fact 'vain enough' to go ahead and spend both the effort, and the considerable financial resources, to produce the best possible presentation of their own personal vision for their precious art (ie, product), knowing all the while they have no reasonable expectations of ever recovering the money they have spent to fully realize those artistic visions.

IMHO, that is the measure of a true artist, and a most honorable pursuit.

In fact, very similar to some of the boutique manufacturers (that we all laud here on this site as) being unwavering in their vision, unconcerned solely with their profit margins, and unwilling to compromise even one iota of their integrity in the pursuit of financial gains or the "bottom line"...

IMHO, no one can possibly question the integrity of any content provider (be they artist, or manufacturer, or audio service provider) who offers no compromise, yet understanding all the while that they cannot possibly benefit (at least, financially) in any way, and yet are still absolutely unwavering in their commitment to providing the highest quality possible.

And, in the case of (most) music providers: _ALL FOR FREE_

So, who's the true artist and who's the hack, and why would anyone even remotely resembling a sane person choose to pursue this interest?

BTW- I've been advising my clients for years that music is free but T-Shirts are at least $20, so you should price merchandise accordingly...
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Old 9th February 2010   #185
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Well we allready have plenty of laws against copyright enfringement as it is, and thousands of lawsuits over the years that did not work. So what would be the actual solution to this problem?

You have got pirated material all over bit torrent protocal, newsgroups, and websites. How and where is the technology to clamp down on all this? How can the entire internet be policed without completely wrecking it? And turning us all into China style censorship and government?

I don't see any practical solution to this! The problem is when everyone wants to be a crook and has no respect for the other guy; you can't go after everyone in society and lock up all the lawbreakers. There ain't gonna be anyone left to run the prisons!

O.K exageration there, but hopefully I am, making a point? Also doesn't anyone realize that due to the global nature of the internet, any and all laws would have to be global in scope. I mean the jerks that write file trading software programs, will likely turn to VPN's and proxy servers before they stop trading material!!
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Old 9th February 2010   #186
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Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios View Post
prove that it's not - let's see your numbers - maybe you missed this:

even if music sales had plateaued in the last decade we could have seen an argument for net zero change and there would 50% more revenue today than there is - in the argument of :

- piracy is promotion (more exposure for artists)

- album to song conversion (selling more items at lower cost)

- limited physical retail vs unlimited digital retail (selling via massively and unprecedentedly greater distribution capabilities)

however that is not the case- the numbers are contrary due to the facts:

you are intentionally bringing intellectual dishonesty to the conversation in an attempt to subvert the facts.

these are the facts:

- music sales began a rapid decline at the introduction of file-sharing


- after ten years of unchecked filesharing music sales have reduced 50%
Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half in 2000s - Feb. 2, 2010

- 1% of torrent content is non-infringing
Survey: Only 1% of Torrents non-infringing • The Register

- 95% of all digitally distributed music is illegal
95% of music downloads are illegal | Music | guardian.co.uk

we'll see what happens when the cat comes to play with the mouse. up till now this issue has been one sided, all mouse and no cat.

I understand that people are upset that their free music and media is going away and that there will be real consequences if they are caught.

But it's happening, and all the intellectual dishonesty you can muster is not going stop the avalanche of copyright battles just getting started.

there will be set backs and false starts, no doubt - but the sleeping giants of content (music, film, software, books, publishing, tv, etc) have finally awoken to the seriousness of the threat and are now taking steps to correct the problem.

see here:

Biden's Briefing: Media, Anti-Piracy 'Big Dogs' Convene...

Verizon ends service of alleged illegal downloaders | Digital Media - CNET News

Report: Three-Strikes On ACTA Agenda
You make several good points. But you're simply ignoring some fundamental aspects of the conversation.

  • You cannot address REVENUE without addressing COSTS and PROFIT. Peroid! Those are numbers that any objective businessman would ask for. The industry is certainly taking a hit. (Please stop re-stating the obvious.) The real questions are WHO is losing the most and by exactly HOW MUCH?
  • Arguing that an industry is "trying" to innovate and deliver new distribution mechanisms is silly. It is not the role of the thief to stop stealing. That responsibility rests with the product owner. (There is no contest here, guys. I work in an industry which is really one of the underlying 'accomplices' to online theft. I've seen REMARKABLE advances in technologies that COMPLETELY secure digital data. The RIAA doesn't want to pay the licensing monies and the consumer WILL initially reject it. But that is the case with any protection scheme.... iLok anyone?!)
  • You cannot wholly blame the consumer for their devaluation of music. The RIAA has done a pretty good job of watering down the product themselves. (This is a time to get honest and admit that there are signed acts that would have NEVER been considered if the COSTS of mass-marketing them were still the same. The forecasted return on investment (ROI) would have been too low.)

Either way, when you factor in the losses of the SAG with those of the RIAA, you're probably in the area of $2B/year due to online piracy. With numbers like those, I pretty well guarantee we'll see some very innovative protection schema be introduced in the near future. (Do a little reading about mobile "long term evolution" and you can start to see a different landscape evolving.)

My point continues to be the fact that we're see only seeing the side of the picture that they WANT us to see. (And some of us are screaming that the sky is falling because of it.) I made ~$65K profit last year as a SECONDARY income through music in a limited market. If you're not doing at least as well, there is something wrong with your approach.
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Old 9th February 2010   #187
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Sorry I've been away for a few days, but I'll try to answer your questions as best I can now......I know you posted these for redvelvet also and perhaps he will have more to add?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
You make some good points, but still overlook some key elements.

1. What is the perceived value of the product?

I'm not in denial that the perceived market value of recorded music is low.
But lets take piracy out of this picture (or curb it at least) to determine what the real market value should be
Here's a post I made earlier that attempts to do just that.......

"
In the past 10 years we've had

more computers
more internet access
more iPods (some 225,000,000 of them!)
more phones with memory
more single downloads
more bands with better visibility than ever before
more people going to more gigs
an economic boom
cheap credit
more disposable income than ever before
The world's economy doubled in size from U.S. $30.21 to U.S. $60.59 trillion

Yet the music industry is effectively halved?


But I think the fairest way to correlate the two, (piracy & revenue) is to look at the growth in gigs.
Find out what the growth was in the gigs and I reckon you'll probably get the fairest indicator of what the music industry *should* have grown by without piracy.

"


If you are saying that....the market value of recorded music is nominal or free, then you have a valid point.
Then ask yourself why is the market value perceived to be nominal or free?




Quote:
Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
2. Is the money equitably distributed throughout the industry?
NO, and there is a very good reason behind this. Bands are probably one of the riskiest endeavours that one could ever invest in.
The record companies take a HUGE risk, and I argue that because of piracy, they are less likely to take a risk in developing the more creative artists in the future.
I would much rather pay 99c to help quality artists than see them languishing in mc Donalds
Now that's equitable don't you think!


Quote:
Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
3. Where does the "everything is free" model come from?
The pirate parties manifesto.......
"we want to create a fair and balanced copyright"


a few paragraphs later......
"All non-commercial copying and use should be completely free, file sharing and P2P networking should be encouraged rather than criminalized"


also......

A quick search of TPB yielded

ALL of the UK top 10
7 out of top 10 films (U.K)
Call of duty-modern warfare, logic, Native Instruments, some waves stuff etc etc......



Quote:
Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
EVERY major industry (outside of utilities - which are monopolies) has to adjust to market dilution and price levels. .
I'm all for free market economics, but lets take piracy out the equation. Music is less than half the price of what it used to be (inflation adjusted)
We need to ask ourselves, is this because of cheaper distribution mechanisms/market saturation OR is it simple elasticity of demand?....ie when something is free, it's extremely hard to convince people to pay otherwise.
People still love music, and they'll spend a great deal on gigs, but why won't they spend a great deal on music?



redvelvet puts it more succinctly than i ever could.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios View Post
jumping in here without addressing anyone specifically...

a few of observations...

1) the "new" model for the music industry is the "old" but without any (or radically reduced) expectation of revenue from recorded music sales - IE - play live shows, sell merch... both old ideas, not new. Shows = Loss Leader for Recorded Music Sales (oooops), and Merch was a sideline business in addition to music - not instead of... the new model/s are nothing than the old models but without recorded music revenue in the mix

2) historically it has been record labels who have invested capital into the development of bands (radiohead, nine inch nails, janes addiction, guns & roses, metallica, beatles, led zeppelin, rolling stones, ottis reading, al green, madonna, etc).

No return on investment means investments will stop. Concert promoters and merch companies only monetize an artists brand after the label has developed it. Concert promoters and Merch companies do not invest in artist development - labels do - as high risk venture capital, and specialized marketing services.

3) rich rock stars don't need the money, they have enough - piracy isn't going to hurt metallica or lady ga ga... uhmmm ok... how did they get so freakin' rich?

4) record labels are evil ripping off artists - if labels didn't rip off artists, people would be more inclined to pay for music? Huh? Wait... I thought people justified stealing music because rich rock stars didn't need the money... but records labels are evil and rip people off and don't pay anyone?

I'm confused... who was slumming at the Grammys? How can an industry that's ripping people off be so evil that it spawns thousands of sustainable careers for musicians, producers, engineers - but doesn't pay anyone? HMMMMM

5) Music is too expensive if it cost less people would buy more. Really? Songs are 99 cents - they're cheaper than candy bars and last longer. Should we look at 10 yr graph of candy bar sales and see what that looks like? People steal music because they can not because of costs.

6) MUSIC IS THE PRODUCT. You are not paying for bits, bytes or plastic when you purchase music. You are buying the result of human labor. The container is a fixed cost, the labor is not - and despite this all music has pretty much standard pricing at 99 cents per song

7) Everyone expects free music now, you just can't change the rules and expect people to pay for it... yes we can. global anti-piracy legislation and enforcement is just getting started - up till now this game has been largely all mouse and no cat - that's changing... buckle up.

8) Music is not the only industry facing piracy problems... what about software, music, videogames, books... all digitally distributed media is being raped by piracy. Piracy is not a functional part of free market economics.

well that's all for now... have at it.
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Old 9th February 2010   #188
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The industry needs to re-invent it's self and if the music industry is to get any better soon it needs to act quickly. Bootlegging has been around for a whilst but everyone bootlegging now can do it much easier than it was 20 years ago. When casettes were introduced you could tape your vinyl album for free and then sell it if you wanted, though when CDs were introduced the bootlegging slowed down, the introduction of computers has harmed the industry as well as made it.

With computers we've been able to run DAWs from home and create products we can promote over the Internet for free or very cheaply, an easier form of networking was introduced and it became easier to find a target audience. Though with emails and mp3s came file sharing and it's becoming increasingly difficult forthe industry to do anything about it. As much as Metallica lost a huge amount of respect from the napster saga, they were completely right and the industry should have sat up and stopped as much of it as they possibly could.
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Old 9th February 2010   #189
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jailedmenonly= jailed lemon=banned
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Old 9th February 2010   #190
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Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
jailedmenonly= jailed lemon=banned
What?
Is Jailed Lemon some guys banned acount? Mine is my pseudonym. Acronym of my name Jamie Donnelly. I'd link you to all my pages but i'd get banned for that.
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Old 9th February 2010   #191
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
But lets take piracy out of this picture (or curb it at least) to determine what the real market value should be
Here's a post I made earlier that attempts to do just that.......

"
In the past 10 years we've had

more computers
more internet access
more iPods (some 225,000,000 of them!)
more phones with memory
more single downloads
more bands with better visibility than ever before
more people going to more gigs
an economic boom
cheap credit
more disposable income than ever before
The world's economy doubled in size from U.S. $30.21 to U.S. $60.59 trillion

Yet the music industry is effectively halved?
Indeed - and I like the way you presented this. It begins to account for ALL of the market dynamics. If we could just drill down to the specifics, I think this would turn from a "problem-oriented" discussion to a "solution-oriented" think tank. IMO, that is something the RIAA hasn't even STARTED until now.


Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
But I think the fairest way to correlate the two, (piracy & revenue) is to look at the growth in gigs.
Find out what the growth was in the gigs and I reckon you'll probably get the fairest indicator of what the music industry *should* have grown by without piracy.
Again, you've pointed out an interest dynamic. Clearly, there is an increased market penetration. Folks are finding "their" bands more accessible. But it doesn't necessarily mean that revenue would be equally proportionate.

One consideration is that, since we are in a culture of "expendable entertainment", music sans live performance is viewed as "static" and, therefore, having little intrinsic value. Video (Live Performance) has indeed killed the radio star?! I don't know. Just thinking aloud.


Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
If you are saying that....the market value of recorded music is nominal or free, then you have a valid point.
Then ask yourself why is the market value perceived to be nominal or free?
See above note. But, again, I am choosing my words carefully. PERCEPTIONS can be altered. You can't promote lunacy like Cribs, "Bling", and a parade of haute coutoure then cry broke. People will NOT empathize and I don't blame them. This is just one of the MANY marketing disasters on the part of the labels.



Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
NO, and there is a very good reason behind this. Bands are probably one of the riskiest endeavours that one could ever invest in.
The record companies take a HUGE risk, and I argue that because of piracy, they are less likely to take a risk in developing the more creative artists in the future.
I don't buy this one so much. The job of the labels is to do what any other company does: Create and market a product that is DESIGNED to be successful. (And if they have common sense, also have some degree of longevity.)

Take the MEGA-STARS out of the equation and what kind of grooming is the LABEL doing with the artists? What are the A&Rs doing to raise the QUALITY of the artists? The average mean of talent is DROPPING in a market where you can afford to be as picky as ever. The elevated risk is associated with the fact that labels are throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks. The old formula still persists: Garbage In = Garbage Out.


Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
I would much rather pay 99c to help quality artists than see them languishing in mc Donalds
Now that's equitable don't you think!
Let's not confuse OUR sentiment with that of the buying public. We are far more educated, sympathetic and subjective than they are. And, not to be an ass, but our opinion doesn't really count for much in this area.

Do I think that Dave Matthews or Alicia Keys should be flipping burgers? HELL NO! But, I don't feel the same about the majority of other gimmicky artists that saturate the market.


Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
The pirate parties manifesto.......
"we want to create a fair and balanced copyright"


a few paragraphs later......
"All non-commercial copying and use should be completely free, file sharing and P2P networking should be encouraged rather than criminalized"


also......

A quick search of TPB yielded

ALL of the UK top 10
7 out of top 10 films (U.K)
Call of duty-modern warfare, logic, Native Instruments, some waves stuff etc etc......

I totally track what you're saying. But this is like reading back Mein Kampf and using it as an overlay to the general public. These are a zealous group of folks who, due to their beliefs, propagate illegal activities. Right now, there is a WEAK counterpoint coming from the RIAA and SAG - and even fewer "solutions" to address the problem.

I sincerely am on the side of the artists. In fact, "I are one." But that doesn't mean that we act irrationally or emotionally to a legitimate problem. As so many others have stated, it's time to stop CRYING and starting SOLVING THE PROBLEM.... Most likely, we'll have to do so from a grass-roots position because labels just aren't getting it.
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Old 9th February 2010   #192
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Originally Posted by jailedmenonly View Post
Though with emails and mp3s came file sharing and it's becoming increasingly difficult fo rthe industry to do anything about it.
the problem isn't really email - it's all forms of "sharing" via P2P. Massive numbers...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jailedmenonly View Post
As much as Metallica lost a huge amount of respect from the napster saga, they were completely right and the industry should have sat up and stopped as much of it as they possibly could.
I agree with this. The artists themselves should be the educators about piracy. Leaving it to the RIAA has been a disaster from a PR point of view. Sure - there's awareness, but it would have been much better to get awareness from the artists directly. The artists have the audience, they should be the educators.
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Old 9th February 2010   #193
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While illegal file-sharing has, without a doubt, been playing a huge part in the downfall, we should perhaps also consider other factors:



Source: Ars Technica [How Hollywood plans to keep prices up as movies go online ]

Note that the data is expressed here in terms of revenue, and thus says little about physical sales per se (the price for CDs and DVDs has dropped quite a bit in the past few years and the average digital album is cheaper than CDs were in the early 2000's).
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Old 9th February 2010   #194
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But, you also have to ask, where perhaps did that extra money come from to buy those games? You may want the music more, but if you don't have to spend any money on it, then that money flows down the priority list to those things that are harder to rip off. So, as always, when people stop playing by the rules of capitalism, it becomes impossible to assign values. You can't tell if they like games more, or just that they can now buy more games because they never had to make the decision whether to buy a game or buy some music.
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Old 9th February 2010   #195
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Originally Posted by Dean Roddey View Post
But, you also have to ask, where perhaps did that extra money come from to buy those games? You may want the music more, but if you don't have to spend any money on it, then that money flows down the priority list to those things that are harder to rip off. So, as always, when people stop playing by the rules of capitalism, it becomes impossible to assign values. You can't tell if they like games more, or just that they can now buy more games because they never had to make the decision whether to buy a game or buy some music.
Yes, perhaps Dean. It sounds like a rather logical rationale.

Nonetheless, I wonder why there are not any solid empirical studies with correlated data on the topic. The actual data on this topic is scarce and limited.

Many factors and their evolution would need to be taken into account to draw an accurate picture of the situation at hand:

- the cost of production itself;
- the cost of marketing;
- the cost of distribution;
- artists' (including engineers...) revenue;
- distributor's revenue;
- retail price and retailer's revenue;
- the revenue of households and the way it is consumed;
- etc...

In addition to that, the way physical media is now sold to consumers has changed quite a bit in the past decade, which influences costs and prices (and hence, revenue), e.g Walmart might be the number 1 music retailer today and I assume it does not buy from wholesalers at the same price independant corner record shops did.

Illegal file-sharing is an obvious culprit, there is no denying it, but I am sure we, as people involved in music production, could benefit from a more realistic view on the topic. That might even help us thinking of how to save our art (and business...).
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Old 9th February 2010   #196
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priacy - the numbers...

the numbers...

* 95% of music is illegally distributed - legal music sales are $6 Billion in the USA.

* so $6 billion = 5% of total music consumption

* that would mean if 100% of the music in the hands of consumers was purchased it would total $120 Billion ($6B x 20 = $120 Billion or 100%).

* so even if piracy could be reduced so that the only 10% of music consumed were purchased annual revenue would be $12 Billion (double what it is now and pretty close to where it was before p2p took hold)

* if piracy were reduced to just the degree where 85% were pirated leaving 15% as legitimate sales would mean $18 billion in legitimate revenue in the USA alone

* just moving the needle from 5% legitimate sales to 15% legitimate sales is a massive game changer... $18 billion in revenue which would be a new peak for recorded music sales

* I don't think anyone needs to argue that legitimate sales would be 120 Billion if piracy we're eliminated - but a quick look at the numbers above and the facts below show that there can be a huge positive change with just a relatively small reduction of piracy...

EDUCATION AND PIRACY PARKING TICKETS... EDUCATION AND PIRACY PARKING TICKETS...

these are the facts:

- music sales began a rapid decline at the introduction of file-sharing


- after ten years of unchecked filesharing music sales have reduced 50%
Music's lost decade: Sales cut in half in 2000s - Feb. 2, 2010

- 1% of torrent content is non-infringing
Survey: Only 1% of Torrents non-infringing • The Register

- 95% of all digitally distributed music is illegal
95% of music downloads are illegal | Music | guardian.co.uk
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Old 9th February 2010   #197
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2 cds or a good game? I'd buy the game. I have my good cds.
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Old 9th February 2010   #198
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Indeed - and I like the way you presented this. It begins to account for ALL of the market dynamics. If we could just drill down to the specifics, I think this would turn from a "problem-oriented" discussion to a "solution-oriented" think tank. IMO, that is something the RIAA hasn't even STARTED until now.
True true true.....If I had more time I'd do it. I still think the correlation between gigs and recorded sales is probably the fairest....but taking all those factors I mention into account doesn't seem too unrealistic to benchmark against either.



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Again, you've pointed out an interest dynamic. Clearly, there is an increased market penetration. Folks are finding "their" bands more accessible. But it doesn't necessarily mean that revenue would be equally proportionate.
True again, but it's probably about as accurate a benchmark as can possibly be placed on it.
Look up "piracy" on wikipedia......there's many sources bandied about there. Some say that piracy has negligible effect on revenues (tho this is about as bullshit of a paper I've ever seen- it correlates what's popular on the pirate bay to whats popular on the charts, and concludes that YES piracy has no effect on sales because what's popular on the pirate bay is popular in the charts also??????????????????????????????????????)

Another bullshit source states that the industry is losing $13 billion to piracy???????????????????????????????????????????????????

So your guess is as good as mine.......somewhere between the two of them I reckon!


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Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
See above note. But, again, I am choosing my words carefully. PERCEPTIONS can be altered. You can't promote lunacy like Cribs, "Bling", and a parade of haute coutoure then cry broke.
True again......although the pirate bay and their ilk will latch onto anything put forward by any sane pro-copyrighter in order to flame their own fire.
People need to be aware of this group-think/us vs them/cognitive dissonance/confirmation bias that exists within the pro-piracy groups.

[confirmation bias is the choosing of one of two conflicting emotions...in the case of piracy, it's way easier to choose elation "I got this album for free" over guilt "i Just stole this, I feel bad"]




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Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
The old formula still persists: Garbage In = Garbage Out.
I just wonder why there's so much garbage going in? the labels are scared and they're reacting the only way they know how "we need a hit dammit"

I'm very interested in this notion that piracy will favor the pop-puppet over the most creative of artists. I hope I'll be proven wrong, but I've yet to see any evidence that I will.......you're right that indie artists need little in the way of development, but they still need money to allow them to focus on their art so as they can focus less on their careers in telesales!



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Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
But, I don't feel the same about the majority of other gimmicky artists that saturate the market.
Perhaps you could entertain the notion I put forth above......x-factor, pop-puppets, perfume endorsements are all by-products of an age in which art is undervalued?




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Originally Posted by PeeWeeGee View Post
I totally track what you're saying. But this is like reading back Mein Kampf and using it as an overlay to the general public. These are a zealous group of folks who, due to their beliefs, propagate illegal activities. Right now, there is a WEAK counterpoint coming from the RIAA and SAG - and even fewer "solutions" to address the problem.
I dunno about weak, I'd say more cautious.....I think they're trying to rid themselves of the very "shoot from the hip" emotional response that you oppose. (which you rightfully pointed out has backfired in the past)
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Old 9th February 2010   #199
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I love this graph, as it doesn't account for the 6 BILLION songs downloaded via iTunes between 2003 and 2009. Granted, those are worldwide sales which have ramped up the most in recent years, but in it's first year alone iTunes sold 70 million songs.

The CD is dead. The album is dead. The recording industry as we once knew it is dead. And there ain't no going back...
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Old 9th February 2010   #200
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I love this graph, as it doesn't account for the 6 BILLION songs downloaded via iTunes between 2003 and 2009. Granted, those are worldwide sales which have ramped up the most in recent years, but in it's first year alone iTunes sold 70 million songs.

The CD is dead. The album is dead. The recording industry as we once knew it is dead. And there ain't no going back...
Well, for one thing it only goes up to 2004, so obviously it wouldn't. But they really wouldn't have made much difference. 960M CDs (at the peak) would be 9.6 billion tracks PER YEAR. Those 6B tracks over three years wuld be 2B a year on average. Already by 2004 2B a year would only have broken even. But CDs kept falling and are now down to something like 1986 levels, and the legal digital sales haven't remotely made up for that loss.
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Old 10th February 2010   #201
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Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios View Post
* 95% of music is illegally distributed - legal music sales are $6 Billion in the USA.

* so $6 billion = 5% of total music consumption

* that would mean if 100% of the music in the hands of consumers was purchased it would total $120 Billion ($6B x 20 = $120 Billion or 100%).
These numbers just don't add up. If you divide $120B by an average per-unit cost of $12 you would get 10 billion units sold. At the peak of the industry only about one billion units were sold for CDs, cassettes, and vinyl combined. Do you honestly think that the current level of music consumption is 10 times what it was a decade ago?


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Originally Posted by redvelvetstudios View Post
- 95% of all digitally distributed music is illegal
95% of music downloads are illegal | Music | guardian.co.uk
Oops, here's why your numbers don't add up. Above you said that 95% of music is illegally distributed. What the article actually says is that 95% of digital downloads are illegal.

iTunes has sold about 5 billion songs over 6 years or so, or about 833 million units a year. iTunes has about 70% of the digital music market, we can roughly estimate that the entire digital market moves about 1 billion songs a year. So those 1 billion songs are the 5% of the market, and if the 95% illegal downloads were paid for the total market would be about 20 billion songs a year, or $20 billion at 99cents per unit. Not $120 billion.

And even that $20 billion is an unrealistic best case scenario. That amounts to somewhere around 2 billion albums, or double the sales at the peak of 1999. So yeah, people consume more when it's free. No way are you going to convert them all to paying customers though.
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Old 10th February 2010   #202
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These numbers just don't add up. If you divide $120B by an average per-unit cost of $12 you would get 10 billion units sold. At the peak of the industry only about one billion units were sold for CDs, cassettes, and vinyl combined. Do you honestly think that the current level of music consumption is 10 times what it was a decade ago?

Oops, here's why your numbers don't add up. Above you said that 95% of music is illegally distributed. What the article actually says is that 95% of digital downloads are illegal.

iTunes has sold about 5 billion songs over 6 years or so, or about 833 million units a year. iTunes has about 70% of the digital music market, we can roughly estimate that the entire digital market moves about 1 billion songs a year. So those 1 billion songs are the 5% of the market, and if the 95% illegal downloads were paid for the total market would be about 20 billion songs a year, or $20 billion at 99cents per unit. Not $120 billion.

And even that $20 billion is an unrealistic best case scenario. That amounts to somewhere around 2 billion albums, or double the sales at the peak of 1999. So yeah, people consume more when it's free. No way are you going to convert them all to paying customers though.
good points. thanks. I'll look into all that. one quick note is that I don't think the 95% is limited to digital songs - it's songs and albums. but I'll double check that as well.

even if your numbers are correct, it would still show that managing piracy to even just a "good enough" degree yields significant gains for legitimate sales.

RESOURCES - IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2009

Quote:
Despite these developments, the music sector is still overshadowed by the huge amount of unlicensed music distributed online. Collating separate studies in 16 countries over a three-year period, IFPI estimates over 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of around 95 per cent.
this from the PDF:
Quote:
Collating separate studies in 16 countries over a three-year period, IFPI estimates
more than 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of around 95 per cent.
Scary Stat: Album Sales Down 54.6 Percent Since 2000... — Digital Music News

Rough Decade: US-Based Albums Tanked 60 Percent In the 2000s... — Digital Music News

Album Sales Collapse As Digital Downloads Top 40% Of Market – 24/7 Wall St.

Quote:
Album Sales Collapse As Digital Downloads Top 40% Of Market
Posted: January 7, 2010 at 5:46 am

Digital downloads accounted for 40% of all music sales in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But, that was not enough to stop an overall drop in sales whichreached 13% compared to 2008.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Domestic album sales, including digital downloads, fell to 373.9 million units, a decline of 13% from 2008.” The increase in digital sales surprisingly rose only 8.3% for the year.

The drop on the sales of physical albums was expected. The slow increase in song downloads was not. It poses a threat to the ongoing success of services like Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes and may eventually affect sales of multimedia players including the iPod.

There are several reasons that digital download sales did not do better last year. The first one is clear and that is the recession cut into the ability of people to pay for almosteverything, even inexpensive entertainment. Sales should rebound in 2010 and 2011 if that is the case.

The more sinister problem is piracy. The IPFI, which represents the global music industry, reported early last year that illegal downloads were 95% of all consumer album and songusage. The organization said it would continue to pressure ISPs to find individuals who run software services that are used to steal music without payments to publishers andartists.

The level of piracy identified by the IPFI is much too great to be lessened much by better monitoring systems and persecution of law-breakers. It is too easy for people to us PirateBay and other illegal download services. Consumers have little or no qualms about listening to music that they have not paid for.

The leave the music industry to face a problem. Digital album sales may never grow quickly again. Piracy may be plaguing the business more and more each year.

Douglas A. McIntyre



sooo

Quote:
Digital downloads accounted for 40% of all music sales in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But, that was not enough to stop an overall drop in sales whichreached 13% compared to 2008.
40% of 6 Billion = 5%... so that's 2.4 Billion Dollars is the 5% base... ok let's work off of those numbers... calculate and add to the remaining 3.6 billion in physical product sales.
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Old 10th February 2010   #203
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Originally Posted by bilbobaggins View Post
People still love music, and they'll spend a great deal on gigs, but why won't they spend a great deal on music?
Because they can get it for free on TV, radio, myspace, youtube, internet radio, VidZone, and a multitude of other sources which don't require piracy. Add that to the increase in competition for your disposable income and all that music is now competing against movies, ISP fees, smartphone data plans, cable TV, TV on demand, netflix, video games, xbox live, DVDs, Blu-ray, online shopping, books, magazines, Steam, WOW, and, of course, live gigs.

If someone can go to the youtube channel of their favourite artist's label and watch the latest single any time they want, why would they go out of their way to pay for it when they can put that money towards something else?
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Old 10th February 2010   #204
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Originally Posted by 100th Monkey View Post
Because they can get it for free on TV, radio, myspace, youtube, internet radio, VidZone, and a multitude of other sources which don't require piracy. Add that to the increase in competition for your disposable income and all that music is now competing against movies, ISP fees, smartphone data plans, cable TV, TV on demand, netflix, video games, xbox live, DVDs, Blu-ray, online shopping, books, magazines, Steam, WOW, and, of course, live gigs.

If someone can go to the youtube channel of their favourite artist's label and watch the latest single any time they want, why would they go out of their way to pay for it when they can put that money towards something else?
I think that you've made some great points.

I do find it interesting that so many here look at the past decade which has been horrible for music and newspapers (online and offline revenues combined for both), and they'll say music's issues are all caused by piracy yet the news industries issues were not.

I've also written about the difference in listening to music when I was 13 (had to buy the tape, copy it off the radio, copy it off MTV, or copy it off a friend) versus the average 13 year old today who can listen to whatever song they want free/legally on youtube.com or the record company's website.

The need to pay in order to access music is gone, because you can access it for free.
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Old 10th February 2010   #205
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I'll look into all that. one quick note is that I don't think the 95% is limited to digital songs - it's songs and albums. but I'll double check that as well.
Yeah, it's really tough to make any meaningful conclusions since all of this data we have is a mish mash of dollar amounts, units sold, and market percentages. I also just realized that some of these numbers are global and some are U.S. only.


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40% of 6 Billion = 5%... so that's 2.4 Billion Dollars is the 5% base... ok let's work off of those numbers... calculate and add to the remaining 3.6 billion in physical product sales.
Since those Nielsen numbers seem to be U.S. only let's look at the latest IFPI report instead. RESOURCES - IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2010

- Global digital music trade revenues reach US$4.2 billion

- More than a quarter of all recorded music industry revenues worldwide are now coming from digital channels

That means global music revenues are probably around 16.8 billion. Their report from 2000 says "The global music market was worth US$36.9 billion," so that seems to confirm the 50% drop.
NEWS -

They didn't say anything in this year's press release about the rate of piracy, so we'll use their 95% figure from last year's report.

So $4.2 billion is 5% of $84 billion. Add in the $12.6 billion in physical sales and you get $96 billion. If you think that that 95% is all lost sales all lost sales, you would have to believe that the industry should have grown from $37 billion to $96 billion in the past decade. That doesn't seem realistic to me.

So the big unanswered question mark is how many of those 95% of illegal downloads are potential lost sales? I guess that's what you were getting at when you calculated the 10%, 15%, etc of 120 bil. In order to meet the 2000 sales numbers, the industry needs to make an extra $20 billion. If the 95% illegal downloads is 40 billion files downloaded, that means the 5% is 2 billion units at an average of $2 a pop (not sure how that works out. singles & album numbers mixed together?). So to make up the lost $20 bil, the industry needs to sell an extra 10 billion downloads, or convert 1/4 of the current illegal downloads in to legal sales.

Or something like that.
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Old 10th February 2010   #206
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Wow I just realized that I arrived at the $20 billion number in my previous post as well using entirely different statistics.
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Yeah, it's really tough to make any meaningful conclusions since all of this data we have is a mish mash of dollar amounts, units sold, and market percentages. I also just realized that some of these numbers are global and some are U.S. only.




Since those Nielsen numbers seem to be U.S. only let's look at the latest IFPI report instead. RESOURCES - IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2010

- Global digital music trade revenues reach US$4.2 billion

- More than a quarter of all recorded music industry revenues worldwide are now coming from digital channels

That means global music revenues are probably around 16.8 billion. Their report from 2000 says "The global music market was worth US$36.9 billion," so that seems to confirm the 50% drop.
NEWS -

They didn't say anything in this year's press release about the rate of piracy, so we'll use their 95% figure from last year's report.

So $4.2 billion is 5% of $84 billion. Add in the $12.6 billion in physical sales and you get $96 billion. If you think that that 95% is all lost sales all lost sales, you would have to believe that the industry should have grown from $37 billion to $96 billion in the past decade. That doesn't seem realistic to me.
I brought up the same facts to him in the piracy forum. He absolutely thinks the industry would have grown by that degree without piracy.
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Old 10th February 2010   #208
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These are not the best of times. 1994, NY, I was making between 150 and 350 a day depending on what I was doing, sometimes more. I have a specific set of skills that at one time were absolutely necessary for anyone of any caliber to start their production process/artistic expression, my skills are still intact and have been enhanced by years of experience. Yet, I must now quit my profession, sell my tools at a drastically devalued prices and create a new identity. In the past 5 years this crisis has brought me divorce, bankrupcy, social alienation and various emotional problems. I love the work I do and I'm also a composer and a musician, I have been well critiqued even as a director in the theater. I don't give a rat's ass about CD prices or heavy honchos or any other reason why one justifies theft and the musician's union is not made from a bunch of ass munchers and everyone who worked in the music industry is filthy rich. Most of them are people like me who are now out of work and potentially a public burden. Anyone who steals music is a thief and a conspirator. To me it's not even an intellectual argument and anyone who wants to start an argument with me about piracy, which is a phenomenon which has all but ruined my life, will find themselves with their collarbones ripped from their torsos and shoved one up their ass and the other down their throats
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Old 10th February 2010   #209
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I think that you've made some great points.

I do find it interesting that so many here look at the past decade which has been horrible for music and newspapers (online and offline revenues combined for both), and they'll say music's issues are all caused by piracy yet the news industries issues were not.
I'm not sure how many people have said that the news industries issues aren't fairly similar. It's somewhat different in that the product has a very limited time period of value. But they were pretty much forced online by the internet phenomenon, and as soon as they went digital, they were going down the same road as the music industry.

Quote:
I've also written about the difference in listening to music when I was 13 (had to buy the tape, copy it off the radio, copy it off MTV, or copy it off a friend) versus the average 13 year old today who can listen to whatever song they want free/legally on youtube.com or the record company's website.
A lot of it on Youtube is likely not legally there. The problem is that Youtube requires that the copyright holder formally complain and ask it be removed. So the onus is on the copyright holder to spend a lot of time tracking down their stuff being illegally uploaded and making a complaint. Then of course it's right back up the next day. You see people discussing it in threads when something is blocked, that everyone should download it and just keep uploading it. They are evil little dickheads really.

So Youtube makes money by the boatload, and forces the copyright holder to do all the work, and they know that someone will put it right back up so they'll continue making money by the boatload. They copyright holder cannot just say, NEVER allow this song to be posted. Clearly Youtube actively removes porn before it even gets seen as far as I can tell, so you know they have people monitoring all new posts, therefore they cannot claim they don't watch them all.
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Old 10th February 2010   #210
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These are not the best of times. 1994, NY, I was making between 150 and 350 a day depending on what I was doing, sometimes more. I have a specific set of skills that at one time were absolutely necessary for anyone of any caliber to start their production process/artistic expression, my skills are still intact and have been enhanced by years of experience. Yet, I must now quit my profession, sell my tools at a drastically devalued prices and create a new identity. In the past 5 years this crisis has brought me divorce, bankrupcy, social alienation and various emotional problems. I love the work I do and I'm also a composer and a musician, I have been well critiqued even as a director in the theater. I don't give a rat's ass about CD prices or heavy honchos or any other reason why one justifies theft and the musician's union is not made from a bunch of ass munchers and everyone who worked in the music industry is filthy rich. Most of them are people like me who are now out of work and potentially a public burden. Anyone who steals music is a thief and a conspirator. To me it's not even an intellectual argument and anyone who wants to start an argument with me about piracy, which is a phenomenon which has all but ruined my life, will find themselves with their collarbones ripped from their torsos and shoved one up their ass and the other down their throats
Shitty, shitty deal...I feel your pain. Keep your chin up, it will get better. Hard to do but somehow someway you must make it through. Life is a funny thing, hopefully you will find the strength and courage needed and become happy again. Good Luck!
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