Bono calls for control over Internet downloads

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100103/ennew_afp/entertainmentusfilmmusicinternetbono ^ | 1-2-2010 | Yahoo News

[Paul46360]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Irish rock star Bono called Sunday for tougher controls over the spread of intellectual property over the Internet, arguing that file swiping and sharing hurt creators of cultural products

[fatnotlazy]

To some degree he is right. When one creates intellectual property (copyrighted, trademarked or patented works), it should be protected from piracy. After all, he and his band are the ones who created these works; why should every bum under the sun get to profit from it?

However, I think most of the piracy is done because buying the music is not feasible. CDs and the like are way too expensive for most fans (usually college students and other young people with limited financial means). Stop the profiteers yes, but going after young people for sharing and downloading will alienate your fan base. Turn off your fans and before long, you won't have any.

[Artie]

Breathlessly waiting for the Super models to weigh in...

[Blue Turtle]

Latest album did terrible sales....therefore he is complaining about the downloads. Bono likes the $$$ good life.

[Yardstick]

I’ve listened to tons of copyrighted music just on YouTube. That means there must be a million places out there where you can get it for free and in high quality if you want it. I don’t see how the music industry is going to survive, at least in the area of recorded music. It seems like the only money will be in live performances.

[Yardstick]

CDs and the like are way too expensive for most fans...

Wrong.

[Blue Turtle]

NO, what is ruining the music industry is the promotion of crappy music. Rap, pop, Britney, etc....have been promoted and marketed to kids. Its all about the quick single, not the album. True artists aren’t allowed to develop. U2 would have been finished after their second album “October” in today’s industry. There are ways around this downloading...

[brownsfan]

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Sharing songs on the internet, for free, is stealing. Making music is no different than making toasters, or tires, or tools. If you walked into a store and walked out without paying for the items you picked up, that is equivalent to stealing music.

[Will88]

Here is a Wikipedia list of all time top selling albums. No albums selling more than 20,00,000 since 2004, and only five with 20,000,000+ sales this entire decade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_worldwide

Just listening to music in various media outlets probably doesn’t hurt sales that much. Listening on radio was once far bigger than it is now. It’s copying the music rather than buying that will really put the squeeze on the industry.

[NoRedTape]

"Sharing songs on the internet, for free, is stealing. Making music is no different than making toasters, or tires, or tools. If you walked into a store and walked out without paying for the items you picked up, that is equivalent to stealing music."

Yep.

[Blue Turtle]

The genie is out of the bottle...Bono knows the environment of downloads....stop making new songs and just tour.

[moehoward]

Isn’t he about 15 years late to this anti-download party????

With all the dirt cheap music outlets available there ain’t all that many “file sharers” left.

[MikeGranby]

Cui bono, indeed...

[Will88]

NO, what is ruining the music industry is the promotion of crappy music. Rap, pop, Britney, etc....have been promoted and marketed to kids.

Nope, Britney had huge album sales before downloading became so common. 25,000,000 for Baby One More Time in 1999. She made it big just before downloading started cutting sales drastically. She's one of the most successful acts of the past ten or so years, in sales and concert tours.

Kids have always been the biggest market for music.

[sergeantdave]

This frog-croaker needs to see his wealth downloaded and distributed to African witchdoctors.

[ßuddaßudd]

I can safely say I have not and will not ever download a sorry a** whiny U2 song. What a Putz !

[God luvs America]

never mind they want us to pay extra taxes to fight “man-made global warming” so they can fly around the world in private jets...

socialism’s a b!tch when it hits’ their pocketbook....

[The Comedian]

BitTorrent reduces Manmade Global Warming to zero.

The data proves it.

Sorry Bono, but Earth is my first priority. Your royalties will have to share the burden in order to save polar bears.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[heights]

The wikipedia list of top selling albums is mixing albums and records sold, two very different animals. An album counts as six records. Michele Jackson's Thiller sold 100 million records not albums. The Eagles 'Greatest Hits' has sold over twenty-five million albums or 125 million records. That list is useless.

[gitmo]

I thought he skied into a tree and got killed.

[Mad Dawgg]

"NO, what is ruining the music industry is the promotion of crappy music. Rap, pop, Britney, etc....have been promoted and marketed to kids. Its all about the quick single, not the album. True artists aren’t allowed to develop. U2 would have been finished after their second album “October” in today’s industry. There are ways around this downloading..."

Yes PART of the problem however such is just the logical outcome after the noise barrier in recording was broken. (via digital technology) This breakthrough changed forever how things are done. The digital revolution shook up the industry in so many ways you could fill an entire set of encyclopedias on the subject.

It used to be to get a viable product that would compete with the pros (not performance but in the recording) a musician would have to spend tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and studio time and mastering.

The digital revolution destroyed the lock the recording industry had on the music market because they owned the gateway (studios, distribution, manufacturing of the product.) the digital revolution destroyed that gateway. Now a band can record and master and produce its own music and get it to millions of listeners via the Internet with a few thousand dollars invested in some digital recording and mastering hardware and software.

And since MORE people can afford to get in the game, more music is produced AND thusly the same amount of dollars is chasing MORE product plus the ability to digitally share music with friends ADD it all up and you get what has destroyed the monster over bloated beast we know as the recording industry.

The same is starting to happen to the TV and movie industry. You can purchase a production quality HDTV camera for 2000 bucks. Add another 500 bucks for software to edit and master another 1000 for some decent mics and other gear and you are in the movie business. All you need is some actors a script and some talent and you can have your movie online for literally 100s of millions of people to enjoy it complete with complicated special effects and digital lighting tricks via the editing software. 10 years ago that wasn't possible.

Bono wants to point a finger of blame at someone because he can't make as much money as he once did and I believe he is honestly worried that newer artists won't be able to either. File sharing is a part of the problem but its not the main cause. The real reason is that being a recording artist now is a vocation open to anyone who wants to spend a couple of grand on the gear and getting down to work. The market is diluted now and we aren't going back to Kansas Dorthy!