Definitely a valid point, but it's also one side of the Chicken or the Egg
syndrome. The whole system itself is fucked to the point where people feel
entitled to be able to download something for free - like they're owed it
for having endured some past wrong that was so heinous that the only
redemption is for them to take morality into their own hands.
I for one remember movie (theatre) prices becoming ABSURDLY jacked up in my
city, well before file sharing could have come close to how bad it is now.
Why is it when i go into an HMV, i see more obscure label shit pushing $30
for 1 CD? Its been this way since I was in high school, yet in high school
there was no way for me to track that same album down on the internet - that
was unheard of... so what was the excuse there? Where were all the lost
profits there? (oh right - it was because no one has ever heard of said $30,
so that $30 cd was probably the only one sold in the entire city... ill get
to that in a sec)
It seems to me that INDUSTRY in general, whether it be the film industry,
the record industry, whatever, has a fantastic scapegoat in filesharing and
p2p networking, almost to the point where they (if they have any brains at
all) exploit the best of both worlds: Expansive (and low cost compared to
traditional methods) promotional potential through online marketing
(essentially exposing this music to a wider audience than EVER possible
before), with an over inflated price based on a hard-to-really-prove loss
recovery system. (ie. We have to jack our prices because people owe us for
the shit they got without paying.)
The ironic thing is, if they truly are having to jack prices to recover
profits lost at the hand of piracy, the ONLY people they are penalising are
the people who are supporting them in the first place.
I'm definitely pro-piracy to the degree of stating that this system that
exists - that so many people want to fight to protect, and fight to retain
justice in - is NOT working, and is NOT fair. When the big guys have to
start closing the doors because it's getting that bad, maybe FINALLY an
underground artist will have even the tiniest chance at becoming successful
without having to suck the dick of a monster that could care less, just for
a chance at a lucky break of a shot of success.
Mantrakid
-----Original Message-----
From: tim@tundra-music.com [mailto:tim@tundra-music.com]
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 10:52 PM
To: idm@hyperreal.org
Subject: [idm] who still buys CDs - tangible evidence
I still buy CDs and vinyl all the time - I buy DVDs - I buy books - I buy
computer games. What will eventuate of your purely digital music
collection ? I mean once all your HD's fail and your ipod croaks and you
get sick of spooled DVDr's / blu ray discs full of backed up music.
What with Oink being taken down this issue has come to the fore again -
were there many Oink people on the list? Personally I thought it was
invaluable in that it was an impressive archive of music reaching back to
the 1950's etc - but also found that old bulletin board mentality amongst
users - in that they have some bloated sense of status due to a ratio
system and feeling some kind of vague importance for having been the first
person to leak an unreleased record or upload something they have just
bought.
This arrogance used to be reserved only for the smug assholes 10 yrs ago
who ran record shops and felt so superior for sitting on the other side of
the counter.
I saw my releases on Oink quite often and didn't really think anything
more than it being publicity - and we all have to have faith that if
someone likes something enough they will at least consider buying it ...
unfortunately the truth is that most people have just become inherently
lazy about anything and everthing in life. The scary thing is that the
layperson has accepted that it is morally ok to download anything from the
internet because 'everyone else does' - it is just group mentality - if
you jump an intersection on a red light - most people will just follow
blindly because the person infront is doing the same.
In a country like Australia the results of people downloading all of their
forms of entertainment illegitimately from the internet can be seen by the
insane pricing of games / DVDs / music - also movie ticket prices are
phenomenal. I ain't no tight arse on my moral high horse, but this whole
debate is a huge litmus indicator showing more about the general fibre of
society currently .. people really don't give a fuck about the long term
effects of fulfilling their own little selfish wants and needs in the
short term.
Tim K.
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