Posted on 03/21/2007 2:58:50 AM PDT by HAL9000
Good points. Some of my collection of mine dates back to the late '60's, and some are pretty obscure, i.e. not available on CD.
Don't hold your breath. The telecoms have ways of lobbying away disruptive technologies. Also, those VOIP calls are going to be running over telecom provided Internet connections (with the exception of a few circuits by Covad). Unless net neutrality bills pass, ATT or whomever can degrade your VOIP call at whim, or collect a fee from your VOIP provider.
People still buy CDs? Who would have thought?
You can make the case that a dollar is a fair price, since it lets you play the music on an iPod, computer, home audio system, etc.
On the other hand, I see the price coming down as distribution channels increase, i.e. downloading songs from the digital jukebox at the local bar or a kiosk in the mall or giveaways with retail chains -- buy a pair of jeans from Old Navy and get two free songs -- that kind of thing.
It is a combination of ipods and most of the new music it trash.
Actually I have experienced that myself... I had this CDMA PC-slot internet card that I used to use, in India. I can tell you that they are definitely tampering with the Google Talk service that normally doesn't use much bandwidth, on a traditional internet connection.
Yesterday I bought three CD's for a music project, spent $16 each for them. At those prices I can understand why people would voluntarily spend their money differently.
Psssst... the dirty little secret is that people are NOT buying music. They steal it online! (I can't stand the truncated sound of MP3's).
There is very little worth buying any longer... older artists and older music is still selling, according to Amazon.
LLS
I'm with you - and I try to buy them directly from the artist where possible.
....older artists and older music is still selling, according to Amazon.
To older people.
Kids are listening to more music than ever before, much of it new stuff and a lot of it far beneath the radar of the major record labels. Thanks to the ability to cheaply produce an entire album, inexpensive silk screening processes, photoshop, and webpages, a lot of bands are eeking out a subsistance living as musicians.
MP3 killed the rush marketed under sampled poor replacement for records.
The problem with digital content is that they want to make it non-portable. You buy it and download it to your MP3 player. When you get a new player they want to charge you again.
sniff, sniff
Where is my kleenex?
True enough, but a far cry from the free market developing America's music (think Sun Records). The music industry is dead. Record labels are dying. Maybe someday it will return to the freedom in which it was born.
BTW, if a home-spun band created a Sgt. Pepper etc, it would still rise to prominence. There are few new bands that produce unique new music (more of a blending of what has come before). I do like Audio Slave and a few others.
Being a musician, I can state that with some integrity. The music scene sucks (outside of Jazz, Blues, old Mowtown redux and geezer rock). Yes, I am a geezer!
LLS
I guess all those iPods for Christmas had something to do with this...........Thanks Steve Jobs.........
anyone can make the case that a dollar is a good price, but I'm just not buying it;-)
What's happening now is pure free market. I know many musicians and they hate the record labels -- there are only five or six major corporations that produce 99.9% of American pop culture. And they despise MTV.
These aren't old farts like me, either. These are young kids. When CBGBs went under, they could care less.
What's fascinating, of course, is that this is global. Some band from Brooklyn will engineer a song in some kid's basement, put it on line, and it'll be played in a club in Greece or Argentina the next night.
I have long quite buying audio CDs and download my music from I-tunes. I can find even obscure titles and artists that I cold never find in any traditional CD outlet at a reasonable price and with immediate delivery.
Me neither, but there's a whole world out there filled with folks who think $1,500 isn't too much for a pair of shoes or $150.00 is a reasonable price for a t-shirt.
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