Study: Piracy has positive effect on sales with respect to digital downloads for top tier artists

[harryupbabble]

If "kill the record industry" is possible then shouldn't "kill the internet" be also possible? Would you kill the internet just to cripple piracy and just so that music distribution and music quality can be back to the way it was when you liked it?

You may need computers to make music but maybe you don't need the internet to make music? Make more music if the internet isn't there? Buy Cubase or whatever at your city's music stores?

But damn, I would miss Google and Wikipedia and KVR et cetera. People will have to walk to their local library again and get some exercise but info will be slower and may be limited. And forget about laughing at what someone from Denmark and faraway places instantly typed and such.

Not me. I want my, I want my, I want my... empty v (also known as YouTube). Not so empty. Not to me. It's full of it. I search for "it" and "it" is there. So very, very fast. Long live the internet. Long live music-making. Never mind the saturation. Rise above it. If you can. Or not. Whatevs. Okay dood?

[incubus]

3 piracy threads, not intervention, omg.

Music is alive and well for people that can navigate the new frontier. Assuming that any form of illegal downloading is "ok" is NOT ok.

Yeah yeah yeah, they weren't on the ball, yeah yeah yeah, they didn't keep up, yeah yeah yeah, they are now doing 360 deals that keep the rich rich.

??

One thing is for certain, unless you are keeping up with the times and figuring out WHERE the money comes from, only the lawyers are getting paid

[IncarnateX]

My nightmare: That piracy will kill software industry to an extent where we rent our apps on daily basis with timelimited software that have to be verified 100 times a day by your pc, or by automatic install and programs, or by software only accessible on big servers. That will suck big time.

Thus I say lets get the pirates while we can and send them to the gallow, where they belong. Clock is ticking, so lets go get em. Show no mercy.

[nineofkings]

Personally, I think the record industry in particular will need to change its business model. Due to piracy and saturation, individual recordings have less value as a product. This doesn't mean, however, that music itself has lost value. Clearly people still need and use music on a daily basis. It's just that they're less willing to value individual .mp3 files as the end product like they would a CD or (for some reason again) vinyl record. I don't think the loss of sales due to piracy means the end of the record industry, like the RIAA and others have cried in the past.

Perhaps not. But consider the fact that throughout the most successful years of the music industry, the products that they made their money off were objects that contained musical recordings.

They were the only people who could make these recordings, because recording gear was expensive and difficult to operate and maintain.

They were the only people who could make the objects (i.e. 78 rpm records, 33 1/3 rpm records, 8-track tapes, CDs, or whatever) because they required special equipment and manufacturing facilities.

They were the only people who could distribute the objects, because that entailed maintaining a network of wholesalers, retailers, and promoters.

This situation produced an oligopoly which was protected from extended competition, not just by laws and lobbyists, but by the immense barriers to entry created by the technologies of mass production.

Today, the laws and lobbyists are just about all they have left.

They don't just need a new business model. They need a new business.

You just reaffirmed my point. The barrier to entry is lower, and people no longer value the recording as an "object" in the same way. But they do value the music. So the business itself, of making and distributing recorded music, is still valid. What is needed is a new way of selling it and a new way of expressing its value, ie a new business model.

[chaosWyrM]

My nightmare: That piracy will kill software industry to an extent where we rent our apps on daily basis with timelimited software that have to be verified 100 times a day by your pc, or by automatic install and programs, or by software only accessible on big servers. That will suck big time.

Thus I say lets get the pirates while we can and send them to the gallow, where they belong. Clock is ticking, so lets go get em. Show no mercy.

the scenario you describe would only lead to even more piracy. i think its been shown enough by now that punishing legitimate users with ever more intrusive protection schemes doesnt work.

[herodotus]

You just reaffirmed my point.

I don't think so

The barrier to entry is lower, and people no longer value the recording as an "object" in the same way.

And my point was that the record industry made its money off of these objects and nothing else. They never made money off of the music itself. Music is a hard thing to sell, because of its very nature. The closest thing that had existed before the phonograph was sheet music, which isn't music either, but rather a sort of recipe for it.

But they do value the music.

I don't know how true this is. Music seems to be little more than sonic wallpaper to most people.

But even if people do value music, why should they buy it when they can get it for free? I know that there are hardcore fans who will support their favorite artists by buying stuff, but no one ever got rich off of these hardcore fans alone. They got rich off of the fact that if normal people wanted to hear that song they liked, they would either have to buy a copy of it, or go to the house of a friend who had bought a copy, or hope to hear it on the radio. This is simply no longer true.

So the business itself, of making and distributing recorded music, is still valid.

Perhaps. The problem is the lack of scarcity. Even without the internet, almost everyone can copy a CD or an mp3. You might think that is this immoral, but morality is not the basis of any business that I have ever heard of.

What is needed is a new way of selling it and a new way of expressing its value, ie a new business model.

I agree that this is what is needed for the industry to survive. I am just not convinced that anything real can fill this need.

[nineofkings]

As much as I hate them, subscription models are an example of an alternate business model. You seem to be missing my point. The actual recording, the Mp3 itself (or whatever), must no longer be the only product.

I'm not saying "we need to make customers moral and make sure they buy recordings," because I agree, that's unlikely in this climate. We must instead recreate the product. What is it that people ARE willing to pay for still? How do we re frame the selling of music into something that reveals why it is valuable? The fact that recordings can be taken anywhere et al clearly is no longer enough.

[ghettosynth]

As much as I hate them, subscription models are an example of an alternate business model. You seem to be missing my point. The actual recording, the Mp3 itself (or whatever), must no longer be the only product.

I'm not saying "we need to make customers moral and make sure they buy recordings," because I agree, that's unlikely in this climate. We must instead recreate the product. What is it that people ARE willing to pay for still? How do we re frame the selling of music into something that reveals why it is valuable? The fact that recordings can be taken anywhere et al clearly is no longer enough.

I'm pretty sure that Bono has the answer, any day now. You can trust him too, he gave everyone a free album last year; who does that?

[BITWORD]

It used to be back in the day a pirate needed a ship - what happened to that?

I'd like to see them back on ships.... without a compass ---- leave them to navigate the dark skies like its meant to be....

walking the plank and all...

[herodotus]

I'm pretty sure that Bono has the answer, any day now. You can trust him too, he gave everyone a free album last year; who does that?

But of course. Bono has the answers to everyone's questions.

Bono. Is there anything he can't do?

[nineofkings]

I'm pretty sure that Bono has the answer, any day now. You can trust him too, he gave everyone a free album last year; who does that?

But of course. Bono has the answers to everyone's questions.

Bono. Is there anything he can't do?

Find What He's Looking For, if his track record is to be believed.