Music piracy

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Where do you stand on the music piracy on the internet issue. Do you support the musicians in their plea to be paid for their work, or do you agree that this is a way of paying the music industry back for overcharging? Could you ever see the demise of music on an external medium such as CDs?

-- Tim (tim@newmail.net), April 08, 2000

Answers

CDs are far too expensive (in Britain anyway, I could handle European prices!), but I've always taken a firm stand against piracy, mostly because my parents work on the outskirts of the music industry (their shop sells music books) and lose out every time someone photocopies music.

Buuuuuuut... if I could be bothered to download MP3s (they take too long, and I'm not on this computer enough to make it worthwhile), I would. Music piracy has existed forever - there was actually a song released in 1980 about taping things off the radio. Of course, MP3s are a better quality and more easily accesible than anything on tape, but there's no point in complaining about the "industry", there's no practical way in putting an end to it.

I can see a decline in CD sales; in fact, I'm already aware of it among people I know. But it's not going to stop me, Goddess of CDs, eternal peruser of the sales in Virgin, oh no!

-- Zed (zed@swansongs.net), April 08, 2000.


CDs are too expensive in America as well. Very rarely is it that one likes every single song on a CD, so mp3s are wonderful in that aspect, but on the same token, I will eventually have a cd player installed in my car and I won't be able to listen to that song that I've downloaded while driving, which will piss me off I know. Artists get paid a very large salary (oh wait, Im one of the Supremes and $2 million isn't enough for me to back on tour - please) and CDs are still getting bought. The time to start worrying is when CD sales are at 0, but until then, there are still concerts, t-shirts, posters, and what not.

-- Denise (little_wiseman@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000.

In America, cd prices have skyrocketed over the past few years. Luckily, at this stage in the game, the music I enjoy listening to, mainly unknown ska/punk/alternative can be purchased fairly cheaply because there is no big-name production company middleman. I don't think that there will ever be a time where cd's will become obselete; once something goes digital, it's hard to get anything better. And about not being able to hear those mp3's in your car, although right now cd burners are kind of expensive, you can record your mp3's onto a cd and play it wherever you want, so if you're really into the whole "no paying for music" it's something you could look into purchasing. All you'd have to buy is the burnable cd's, which cost about $1-5 a piece depending on where you buy them and how many you buy at one time.

-- Justine (ilovebeinginyourarms@coquette.org), April 08, 2000.

I hate buying new cd's at the big cd store. Most cd's there range from $14.99 - $19.99, overpriced at any rate. I stick to the used cd stores and Best Buy (for imports). It's the little stores that you have to search for hours to come out with some amazing stuff that are worth your time. Music piracy does not affect the music industry. Most of the people who care whether or not their music is pirated have millions upon millions of dollars. They don't need the extra income as most of them have a steady fan base who will buy their albums. Independent artists, who *need* the money, are prominently featured on their own pages or on the pages of their record label or mp3.com. The record company is needlessly worrying. Besides, most people who download mp3's usually end up buying the cd's the artist is on.

-- krysten (krysten@bellsouth.net), April 09, 2000.

I download MP3s (the Napster!) and I can save songs onto my MiniDisc walkman, but downloading MP3s doesn't make me NOT want to buy an artist's CDs. Instead, I end up buying many CDs because I had a chance to hear songs first on MP3. I've found that this is a case for many people. They can download whole albums and still want to buy the CD. It just isn't the same without the whole jewel case and album art and linear notes. Plus, guilt factors in and if you really end up liking an artist, you kind of say to yourself, "Well, I want this album to have good sales, so I'm going to buy it". I could never see MP3s or any music format like that replace CDs. It's kind of like the whole thing with reading books on the internet (or downloading books onto those hand-held device things). It's the same content, the same author, but without all the packaging, it just doesn't have the same feel.

-- Stephanie (thekwakster@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.


As far as getting paid for their work, the current system could hardly be worse for musicians. The number who get paid any significant amount is a microscopic percentage; and these few get paid huge amounts.

I don't have too much sympathy for Dre or Metallica here. Good music, but these guys are crying all the way to the bank.

A note about terms: "piracy" is a loaded phrase, like "pro-life". Richard Stallman suggests "unauthorized distribution" as a neutral alternative. I agree with this.

-- Lucas Gonze (lucas@gonze.com), April 22, 2000.


CD are too goddamn expensive wherever you go to buy them. That's why we should be able to copy as many as we want whenever we want.

-- Doug Seibert (dannyseibert@netzero.net), December 16, 2000.

Record companies, such as BMG, Sony and EMI have been saying that Kazaa and other peer to peer file sharing programs are destroying the music companies, though what they will not tell consumers is that last year was a record high in album sales, with a 10% increase from last year, and the only aspect of sales that fell were singles . This shows that peer to peer file sharing actually helps promote bands by enabling a consumer to listen to a few tracks before going out and buying the CD. Where Sony and BMG are overreacting is by believing every track downloaded is a lost CD sale, though this is not the case at all. A consumer will generally not buy a CD unless they know it is worth buying. And by downloading a track and sampling it, they can tell weather or not they will buy the CD. as a post said above me, downloading music gives us a sample of the music, and if we like what we hear, we will enerally buy it.

-- Dr Kent Ernen Hoofs (drkehoofs@hotmail.com), June 17, 2004.

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