I just purchased an MP3 player, the Creative Labs Zen 30 GB model which I like except that the user interface could be more intuitive. The sound quality and features are amazing though. I "ripped" songs from about half of my hundreds of CD's (at full quality so I can get the best sound at the expense of song storage). All this ripping reminded me of the media companies and their lawsuits against major copyright infringement offenders, (and the embarrassing lawsuits against kids). Stealing songs or movies is illegal, but these companies have partially brought the problem upon themselves. They were greedy and frequently charged outrageous prices for music, $17+ for a CD! So, of course music aficionados without lots of cash found alternative ways to get their favorite music. The answer was Napster. The free version of Napster is gone, but various peer-to-peer file sharing alternatives still exist. To me, piracy isn't as bad of a profit loss problem as software/media producers say. Some people 'steal' stuff they never would have bought in the first place so those instances of theft aren't lost income. Then, these 'thieves' often become loyal customers and ambassadors who spread the word and advertise the product for free (as in buzzmarketing). The message gets to some people that can afford to buy it, and would not have bought it in the first place because they would not have know about it. Potentially, those who stole a band's music will eventually get to the stage in their life where affordability stops being an issue. Then they can buy future CD's or software.
Hopefully the media/music/software companies will continue to innovate in how they deliver content and will not continue their greedy ways. If they lowered prices on music and software, fewer people would steal, and profits might increase. Again, I don't condone illegal free downloads because if all the profit goes away, fewer artists will produce content for us to enjoy and the quality might go down. But major media and content providing corporations must stop exaggerating the problem and begin doing a better job of adapting to technological and market conditions. To do so would only help their credibility and their profits.
+ Atul
Agreed.
The penalties for music and movie piracy are actually worse than those for child pornography in some cases, makes no sense. I understand that the multimedia industries are trying to stop people from stealing their productions, but in the end, high prices and restrictive DRM push even more people to piracy while punishing those who only want to enjoy their favorite music the right (and legal) way.
Posted by: ripismoney | July 17, 2006 at 11:41 AM
I didn't know that about the harsher penalties for piracy than child pornography. That's sad. The point on DRM is true too. I didn't think about that fact. It became an obstacle with some songs I downloaded onto a laptop whose hard drive crashed. I had to email to get MSN to restore the files to my work computer and then I had to install my MP3 software on my work computer to get them to my player. That's all because copying the files to my home computer didn't work. What a pain.
Posted by: Atul | July 17, 2006 at 04:44 PM
I'm trying to adjust to the whole idea of "music = downloadable file" but I'm just a sentimental old bastard when it comes to browsing in record stores... getting to know an employee who can recommend stuff to you... rushing home to listen to a new album for the first time... checking out the album art, reading the liner notes... with downloads, all of that is missing, isn't it? sigh
Posted by: Stephen V. Funk | July 17, 2006 at 06:25 PM
You have the Creative Zen Player? Great taste! I want one too!
I don't actually mind paying for music, but as you've pointed out, the prices being charged are ludicrous...even for Singles. I've gone from WinMX to iTunes, which is pretty cheap, but I think you can only burn them onto a CD so many times (or something like that). No worries though...found a few Russian sites that sell tracks for even less (and with fewer or no restrictions)!!!
Anyhow, just thought I'd drop by and slap you with the 50-Questions Tag (get them from my blog), 'cos I reckon you'll prolly have loads of interesting things to say! :-p
Posted by: Charme | July 18, 2006 at 01:18 PM
Great piracy post. I guess great minds think alike. As long as there's a buck to be made, piracy will continue.
Posted by: Leon | July 19, 2006 at 05:51 PM
Heh.... After the tens of thousands of dollars I spent on LPs and CDs over a 20 year span, I'm rippin the sh*t out of music for the next 20. I filled out a form for a piece of a lawsuit about overpriced CDs and I think I got less than $5.
Coincidentally, I started what might be a weekly feature of four tracks on my blog. Stop by and give a listen.
your pal,
p
Posted by: prego | July 23, 2006 at 12:27 AM
Stephen,
You make great points about buying music not being the same experience as it used to be. The other thing is that albums are meant to have songs in a particular order, almost like a story. Also you were forced to listen to songs you didn't know and possibly ended up liking. Nowadays, people just download one or two songs off of an album and the album experience is gone.
Leon,
Yes, piracy will keep happening because of the economics.
Prego,
I never thought about it, but musical restitution makes sense. I think I got $10 from a CD class action lawsuit which is pathetic as well.
I will stop by to check out your tracks.
Posted by: Atul | July 23, 2006 at 10:18 PM
I do believe you have a point about people downloading music that they never would have brought and liking the band. I think so some of the artist it is a matter of stealing their property. They record companies maybe acting out of greed but some of these bands and artist are not rich and never make any real money because of the downloading.
Posted by: Ebrown | November 10, 2011 at 05:08 PM