The thing that I hate the most is when the Artist starts complaining. They get maybe 3-8 % from record sales. They make their bucks on the tour. They should want as many people to hear their songs and get off their lazy asses and tour. Write a song thats worth a crap, get it out to as many fucking people as you can, and fucking tour tour tour!!

The record companies should stop putting up so many shitty bands, spend more time promoting the good ones, and sell more records of good bands. Yes, they are the ones losing money. But... they are the first ones to be a corporation and fuck over as many people in order for the head people to gain. fuck them...

I don't think you want me in charge of any money - but what you say makes sense - I personally have found that bands that I can download and try for free I end up suporting in some small way.

Record companies will always find new ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

I hate the whole industry. The distribution network is the problem. A few companies do what they want.

I understand the artists and well me the customer.

I always tought of the internet to be a chance to overcome central distribution. But the internet becomes more and more a copy of the real world. Just very slowly real internet features evovlve, and they are controlled by other big companies.

I like to download songs without DigitalRestrictionManagement - DRM. I like to listen. Then I buy. I own >1200 CDs BTW. I do buy.

This is the same in the analog world. You listen to the radio. Maybe record it and if you really like it you buy it.

Since everything is restricted. I buy less CDs. And I surely don't buy copy protected ones ...

I have so many songs, I find something new or rarely heard every day. I don't need the hyped pop shit anyway.

I remember mp3.com in the first year. Every artist could register and provide a link to their hompages to sell. It's easy to set up an Amazon shop BTW...

Found some good stuff there. Today it's just another mp3 directory.

Well I can just vote with my money and I do. For whatever it's worth...



Economics:

$5 per un-protected cd and all problems are solved. The industry makes more money and nearly everyone (people who can afford it) will buy it.

50cent for a song. And no copy protection. Then I buy from iTunes...

The industry just got fat. CD's where expensive at first now they are cheap. Producing them is cheap. Instead of letting the market regulated itself. CD's got more expensive the more were produced. And the money gets burned by large organisations and stupid marketing stunts and also bad bands, which are choosen by the companies because they are more likely to be controlled in the first place. Now they have these large corporations which should have been downsized like 15 years ago and fuck the customer. This will fail at some point.

The mp3 downloading thing is just a sign that there is something wrong.

Tell me: how is a 16 year old kid supposed to have money to: buy cd's, dvd's, go to the cinema, buy computer games, buy cool clothes? Let alone ring=tones, SMS, mobile, whatever.

This does not work.

[Edited on Jan 24, 2006 2:13PM]

I think we're dealing with an issue of scale. For the moment, lets call it "ZPO's theory of plankton economics". Individually, a single plankton is incredibly tiny and insignificant. However, large quantities of plankton feed the largest mammal on earth, the blue whale. When you strain enough plankton from the water, you suddenly get into a real food source.

The music distribution industry runs the same way. Getting a company to pay $1M for a song to put in a commercial seems like a lot of money. However, compared to $10 profit per CD on 1 millions CDs, its low by an order of magnitude. 1 times $1M is still $1M. 1 million times $10 is $10M.

Pop Quiz - How much was paid to use "Start Me Up" (Rolling Stones) in a commercial? How about "Vertigo"?

At a more fundamental level, you have now created an environment where the marketing droids are the only paying and direct customers for music. Just imagine - "hey, can you add some beats here? It doesn't sync up with our jingle yet." perhaps -- "Take out that guitar solo. It doesn't fit well with the rest of the toilet paper ad."

The better question is to find the right value proposition. Asking iTunes to charge more for more popular tracks is akin to creating a stock market for music. A more cynical view would be the record companies want to recoup the revenue they aren't getting on the filler tracks via iTunes. The 2-4 good songs on an album of 12-tracks will make a lot of money on iTunes. The other 8-10 tracks won't make any money since they often function mostly as filler to increase the overall number of tracks. Twelves tracks on a CD divided into $12 for a CD works out the same from a economic standpoint if and only if all 12 tracks are purchased.

Why do we need record companies anymore?

Form a band, write some songs, play some shows, put your songs (and artwork, etc.) on your website and charge folks $10 an album to download them (or less).

Record companies are basically advertising agencies at this point. The new Rolling Stones album might as well be a new BMW or heart medicine.

Cut out the suits, support artists at their shows and through their websites, and keep the change.

Of course the lotto aspect of becoming a rock star overnight dies with the record companies, but that wasn't ever the point... or was it?

-Billy

Or people could stop recording music and play more concerts. Preferably cheap ones in my area.

It's all fucked up. I pay for all of my music. I would gladly pay a little more if they released everything on vinyl. mp3s are great for amusing me while I am at work and I want thousands of songs to choose from, but I am not paying $15 for an album in mp3 format.

your take on this, erin, is beyond what any dollar-mongering asshole sitting in a $10,000 leather chair over at universal wants to hear or self aggrandizing bono.

alas, everything you've said is impeccable, although to see things like that in black and white almost seems like a bad science fiction future.

fuck the industry, and please allow me to eat your brain, should anything ever happen to you.

<3

this is a great idea.

needs some work but still quite unique. The major flaw is DRM, so long as the RIAA is dictating things, ideas liek these will be few and far in between.