Posted on 06/26/2002 1:39:56 PM PDT by Scott McCollum
A clip:
“Let me get this straight: The main market segment for a computerized CD-copier kiosk in the mall is going to be middle-aged women rather than teenagers? You mean the hundreds of millions of suburban middle-class 'computers scare me' middle-aged women with the buying power to own millions of Celine Dion or Andrea Bochelli CDs around the world are going to pay $5 to use the Little Ripper kiosks rather than the hundreds of millions of digital music-savvy teens hacking Linkin Park copy protected songs and posting them on the Internet? Come on, anyone with any common sense knows it’s ridiculous to think that anyone over 30 will be using these Little Ripper kiosks. My mother won’t use an ATM, but the Aussie copyright lawyer knows my mother will pay five bucks for a second copy of her Toby Keith CD at a kiosk in the mall?”
If Australia does this to their hard working musicians, no wonder bands like AC/DC wanted to hit big in America with ASCAP publishing rights!
Go ahead Scott, give us a breakdown of where that $55K goes for the average artist that makes that much. You forget that the record label owns the copyright, they have management, lawyers, and massive record label costs to pay off. Oh and most of that is heavily taxed. Cut that $55K down by about 50% from taxes right off the bat every day.
You can complain about the "big evil corporations screwing the artists and fans", but in the end you're advocating destruction of enterprise, a return to 17th century musical presentation (if pirates and so-called activists tear down the recorded music industry to the point where they can't distribute music for a profit, bands will only be able to get their music out to the public via live concerts - with production values paid for out of their own pockets), socialistic redistribution of wealth and a lack of consumer choice.
You will deny it, reply with a false "No, YOU'RE the one who wants to destroy musical choice" and reply line-by-line of every sentence in this reply with your own condescending reply(usually starting each reply with a smarmy: "I didn't say that. I said...").
Alex Lifeson, a career musician with the Canadian rock band Rush noted in a May 2002 interview with JAM! Music's Paul Cantin that digital copies of his band's new CD released on the Internet is not a good thing. Lifeson also lays out the facts that Internet music piracy and complaining about "evil record companies" hurts many young bands trying to make it:
"LIFESON: We spent a lot of money making this record. We spent a lot of money on the packaging, making it the best record we could. A lot of time and energy went into it. To have it on the Internet and download a crappy file is heartbreaking for us. Unfortunately, that is the way it is now. True Rush fans will go get the record, because they want to have that connection, and the lyrics.
We don't hire someone to do these things. We do it. We work with great people, but our involvement is total, in every aspect of everything we do. It is an extension of us. It is really important that that is connected in your hands.
It is a sad state of affairs that it is like that. Some people ... I see the advantages of [file-swapping on the Internet], a great forum for people who want to share music with people. But to say music is free is not true. Music costs millions of dollars, to make this record or a Korn record. There is a lot of money involved. If you say record companies are greedy or uncaring, you keep doing stuff like this, downloading files and taking money out of the system, it is affecting bands that don't get a chance anymore, to sign a deal.
It is affecting the band that gets a one-record deal, instead of a five-record deal. So they can learn their trade on the first two albums and hopefully that third or fourth album is the one. That doesn't happen anymore."
Customers get exactly what they want and their musicians (along with their labels) get what they want. This goes from being sanctioned piracy to become a win-win situation.
The day of the $17.99 CD is rapidly drawing to a close. Not many people realize that when they buy a $17.99 CD that they are putting money in the pockets of record company executives and a bunch of middlemen with only a dollar or so getting to the retail store and recording artists. In fact, many recording artists don't see a nickel from CD sales because the accounting methods of the recording industry are so arcane and corrupt.
One word: Concerts.
And just what percentage of the talent out there is represented there? You must be one of those guys that says that it isn't talent if it isn't on corporate radio. Afterall record labels recognize talented immediately. Do you know why it took Lenny Kravitz so long to get signed? Every major label said, "we like you, you're talented and have a lot of potential but you're a black man rocking harder than a lot of white musicians." He quoted several of the label recruiters that he talked to on VH1's behind the music so don't tell me that they are good about getting talented people the opportunity they need to break big.
"LIFESON: We spent a lot of money making this record. We spent a lot of money on the packaging, making it the best record we could. A lot of time and energy went into it. To have it on the Internet and download a crappy file is heartbreaking for us. Unfortunately, that is the way it is now. True Rush fans will go get the record, because they want to have that connection, and the lyrics.
Nine Inch Nails put together their entire latest release on an iMac. That includes the DVD which was done completely with a few iMacs by Trent Reznor and his collaborators. Don't tell me you cannot put together a high quality product without a lot of expensive labor costs. If they are so concerned about making money, they should follow Reznor's example. In fact Reznor said that he is totally hooked on this way of making records and DVDs. I agree, I have both CDs from his latest release and they sound just as good as any "studio production." Plus Halo17-CD2 is availible for sale directly online. I bought 2 copies, one for myself and one for a friend. A lot of that money is going to Reznor, not to middlemen.
If you say record companies are greedy or uncaring, you keep doing stuff like this, downloading files and taking money out of the system, it is affecting bands that don't get a chance anymore, to sign a deal.
Blah blah blah. I don't own any bootlegs. I have 222 legal CDs on my CD racks in my room and I only download stuff from services like Audiogalaxy so I can preview it. I own a significantly higher amount of CDs than the average anti-file sharing NAZI. Ironic isn't it Scott? Oh and if you'll notice, I advocate paying artists for bootlegs. That's why I said I'd give them $5 per bootleg I make for a friend if they'd open up a paypal account. $5 a CD is a much better rate than what the record labels give them. For peanuts they could distribute uncompreseed Wav audio online and just point people to their paypal account. Most file sharers would jump at the chance to send a few dollars for a good CD to the artist if they could send it directly. Not to mention the fact that many would send $10-$20 per CD. Some hardcore fans might send as much as a few hundred dollars on top of buying the merch, tickets and CDS.
socialistic redistribution of wealth and a lack of consumer choice
It isn't Socialism if the government isn't mandating it. If the record labels okay it, it is just another example of capitalism at work. But then again you've established a reputation for worshipping the power of the almighty big brother from Washington D.C. Your inane comments about MIT training "hackers" and your zealous attacks against the entire Free *NIX user base because a few script kiddies email you and your calls for trashing of the existing common network protocols in favor of a new, "government friendly" set of protocols that add "transparency" show how little respect you apparently have for individual rights.
If you can't follow the posted links, try using a real web browser.
[shrug] Well, if the taxpayers of the United States paid Bill Clinton to be president, I suppose it's not so outrageous that somebody pays you to write this stuff.
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