Forum: General Discussion

sad fact is ... in the long run no one cares

Up until about five years ago I used to get all my music free "promos" as I was recognised as a DJ that the promotions company would like feedback from, I played out to a lot of people back then but it different now so much has changed one thing is the late licencing law coming out, a lot of the clubs in my area are empty as people decide to stay in the pubs! something that wasn't an option before.

However, all this "Illegal downloading is a crime" and "Piracy is killing the music" crap would make me feel like I'm a RIAA/antipiracy spokesperson - something I have a huge problem with. The music industry tries to maintain the illusion that piracy takes the food out from the starving artist's table, which is total BS. Compared to the share those greedy pigs at the record label take the artists gets mere crumbs.

Let's be honest here, the recording industry does not give a rats ass about the little starving artists or its customers. Their whole business model is based on selling the same crap over and over again and to bring huge profits to the share holders and few selected artists. Let's not forget their bed mates, the royalty collection business which is almost like a legalized mafia taxing every possible data storage device just for the POSSIBILITY it could be used for illegal activities.

The recording industry is currently engaged in a hopeless battle - and it has itself to blame for the situation. For decades they tried to sell 2 hit singles + 8 fillers (that everyone had already heard 100 times from the TOP40 format radio) on a shiny plastic disc for 25$. This might be a very lucrative business model, but from customers point of view it offers poor value for money.

Napster and other P2P-networks introduced a new service model, which was based on CUSTOMERS needs. Services like iTunes Store have clearly demonstrated that downloading music from the Internet is not just about getting stuff for free - people are willing to pay if the service offers good value for money. Unfortunately the recording industry refused to evolve and tried to desperately cling to its outdated business model for a decade too long. People got used to getting what they want, when they want, for free. Now it's too late to change people's habits.

Instead of responding to paying customers need, the record companies spends millions of dollars on antipiracy-campaigns and DRM-protection methods which have zero affect on piracy, but forces paying customers to bend over and take it up the ass.

What disgust me the most about recording industry is its "we're above the law" attitude and the complete lack of understanding of what's reasonable. These people have no moral objections to use very questionable means, such as:

- Bribing and/or pressuring government officials to pass unconstitutional laws and punishments that are vastly disproportionate to the "crime" committed.

- Illegal infiltration, hacking and/or jamming of network services and infrastructure.

- Deliberately confusing piracy (=immaterial, digital copies) to physical product counterfeiting and theft, even going as far as spreading downright lies like piracy is connected to terrorism and child pornography.

- Publishing forged "researches" about revenue losses that have absolutely nothing to do with reality.

- Randomly sending blackmail letters with absurd compensation claims - even to people who never even used P2P-services.

- Ruining peoples' lives just out of malicious spite, e.g. by suing housewives for hundreds of thousands of dollars - her terrible of crime being the share of few MP3's over Kazaa. Obviously the "criminal" is not expected ever be able to pay a single dime. They just want to make a warning example of her.

From a cultural point of view the P2P-networks are revolutionary. They enable customers to access a much wider selection of music which they normally would never encounter. This allows a more democratic medium for new artists to gain popularity with a relatively low cost. I consider this to be a welcome change to the mind numbingly boring and generic, mass-produced big-money mainstream brain-torture that has conquered TV and radio. In fact, it has been proven that P2P-networks are viable promotion tools and can actually boost record sales and ticket sales to live concerts.

The recording industry claims to be serving the artists interests, but in reality the vast majority of artists don't approve the methods they are using. Truth is that these fat cats are just plain lazy, greedy and too stubborn to understand that in the long run it never pays off to bite the hand that feeds you. They are not stupid though - they are morbidly scared of the Internet because they know that eventually they will become redundant in the logistical chain of transferring the money and music between the customer and the artist - like it ideally should be.