Vincent Safuto: Music industry strikes sour note(freerepublic mention)

Vincent Safuto: Music industry strikes sour note By Vincent Safuto staff writer September 27, 2003

The recording industry (Motto: To know, know, know them is to sue, sue, sue them) has decided it has just about had enough of people trading music online, and unleashed its legal eagles on all sorts of people, from grandfathers to children, in an effort to convince them that buying the music is better than taking it.

I never used Napster or the other file-sharing services to get music, but I could understand why people might be tempted to build up a music collection for free, rather than paying for it. Compact discs today are expensive, and while I don't have a problem with the artist or the artist's estate making money, and I don't have a problem with the record company making a profit, what's being charged is too much.

Then again, gripes about the cost of music albums didn't start the other day. When I was a teenager, back when the music came on LPs and the record covers were works of art themselves, I remember complaining about the prices.

At some stores, there were charts with letter codes such as "A: $5.95, B: $6.95, C: $7.95" and so on. There were stickers on the album cover with the letter, and you had to look it up on the chart.

The trouble was that the less desirable an album, the lower the letter and the price you had to pay, and these were the prices advertised in those newspaper ads that read "Great music from $5.95."

Thus, the Bay City Rollers' and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods' albums cost a lot less than the works of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

The only alternative was either to make a tape of someone else's record, if they'd let you, or record off the radio. Believe it or not, there was a time when whole album sides were played on the radio.

I'll go without rather than pay almost $30 for "The Beatles," otherwise known as the White Album. That's according to the Web site for a large electronics retailer that sells music. The cassette, by the way, is listed at $10.99.

At a store in the Indian River Mall, that seminal work in the history of the Fab Four will set you back $34.99. Granted, The Beatles fan base is more tilted toward people north of age 40 with the money to spend for such an indulgence, but I'm sorry: $34.99 is way too much.

The music industry needs to face reality. People started stealing songs when the technology made it feasible, and when the cost was beyond what they were willing pay. I'd buy more CDs if the price was a lot more reasonable.

On one Web site I visited, (www.freerepublic.com), one poster said that if CDs cost $7, he'd buy a lot of them, and several other people submitting comments on the site agreed that $5 to $7 was probably the best price for a music compact disc.

Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at ( Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).

As I understand it most musicians say they do not make much money off CD sales, nor concert tickets. In fact most do not make any money that way. The place they say they make their money is on sales of shirts and other memorabilia at the shows, which the music companies have not yet found a way to get their fingers into.

The record companies say royalties do not make it to the musicians because the money is spent on promotion.

So if I understand this correctly stealing music by downloading songs free does not rob the musicians of anything and if I am to believe the record companies it doesn’t rob them either, but only the promoters.

My point is these statements by the musicians and record companies when put together do not make a good argument that downloading music is theft but rather a clever way of eliminating offensive adds.

Believe it or not, there was a time when whole album sides were played on the radio.

During the 1970s in Boston, there were several radio stations that played album sides on a regular basis. I made a lot of tapes (many of which I bought the albums later on). Got turned on to a lot of music that I never would have considered buying otherwise. The recording industry is missing a huge opportunity to promote their products. Only a tiny fraction of what is out there gets played on FM radio. How are we going to be exposed to all this other music? Don't tell me by 30-second clips on Amazon.com or hanging around record stores with those awful headphones. I've never purchased an album based on "sampling sound clips" and never will. I must listen to most of the album once or twice before buying.

As for pricing, there is no reason why CDs can't be sold for a few dollars - which would wipe out the problem of homemade CDs overnight in the same manner taping of movies off HBO was eliminated when the prices of videos/DVDs dropped from $90 to $10-15. Now that DVDs are packed with extra features, it's even more of a no-brainer to just buy the DVD.

Consumers just don't get good value with CDs these days. Besides, they know how cheap CDs are. Why you can get a stack of 100 blank CDs at Wal-Mart for about $15 - or 15 cents per CD. So why do pre-recorded CDs still sell for $18.98? Don't tell me it's because of royalties that the record companies must pay. Because even classical CDs are priced that high and there are no royalties to pay for works of Bach and Beethoven that are hundreds of years old. The consumer is getting fleeced and nobody likes getting ripped off.

$34.98 for the Beatles White Albume! It's true, I've seen this pricing before. Plan on spending close to $20 for any other Beatles album. I would love to own the entire Beatles catalog on CD and would gladly pay as much as $9.99 per CD to do so. But $18.98 to $34.98? Get the hell out of here! In the meantime, I have converted most of my tape and vinyl collection to MP3.

The music industry would also be wise to enhance their CDs in the same manner as the movie industry with extra features. How much extra would it cost to tack on concert footage or music videos onto the CDs so that they can be viewed on a computer? What about better liner notes? Most CDs these days come with a sparse booklet with virtually no information at all. That is inexcusable. Then there is the music itself. Instead of wrapping two or three decent songs around filler, take some extra time in the studio and make a complete album - as was done during the 1960s and 70s. Give the consumers some value for their money and they will buy.

Unfortunately, I doubt very seriously that any old classic blues artists (or their survivors) have gotten a penny from their songs since approximately the first time they sang them.

I used to live in New Orleans. There are many, many impromptu, or almost impromptu, performances... there are gigs in bars, etc., etc., etc. (Of course, the really old blues artists, etc., were gone b/f I was ever there.) I think there are plenty of Brits, Europeans, and others who would routinely go to such performances with recording devices hidden on them. Because I've seen so very, very many of those cassettes and CD's for sale. On the label they sometimes say, "Live!" At any rate, when you listen to them, it becomes apparent that they were made while the person was performing in some public place. (Yes, I'm sure Americans have done bootleg recordings too. It's just that the Brits and Europeans seemed to me to do it more, perhaps b/c they recognized the value of old blues artists sooner than did Americans.)

A classic case (having nothing to do with foreigners) was Professor Longhair, who performed in New Orleans in the 70's (and before). I was always told that his manager(s) took all the money. All of it. However, I believe there has been litigation about this--but it was long after the man's death, and was done by relatives of his. Don't know how it came out.

Remember Lee Dorsey? ("Workin' In a Coal Mine", etc.) I always heard that he was an auto mechanic, for years, after he'd made several top 10 recordings. Wanna bet he got rooked and didn't get any royalties?

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