I am a person who values compromise. As such, I have thought that the iTunes music store and other music download services with liberal digital rights management systems are a good thing and a step in the right direction for the music industry. Although there are flaws and it is propping up an industry which has lost touch with reality, I think it is a step in the right direction.
Today I read that the big record companies are wanting to raise the prices on music downloaded from online music stores.
What is there really to say? There are plenty of ways to refute this. Here are a few:
- The record companies make 65 cents off the 99 cent price point for each track. This already represents a huge profit margin.
- Downloads should be cheaper than CDs and other media since the cost of delivery to the consumer is effectively zero.
- They should be promoting this new method of distribution against rampant piracy through good prices. If prices are raised, it wont be a good deal and more people will be enticed to pirate
The list goes on and on. Anyone with any sort of common sense should be able to realize that this is a boneheaded idea. This and all the other boneheaded ideas of the record companies show more and more that, indeed, the people running the show are out of touch.
If this were another industry customers could just say 'screw them' and another provider would rise up and take their place or at least compete. However in this case the big record companies and the RIAA as their representative have a stranglehold on popular culture and music distribution. If you as a band want to get heard, you have to go through the system. If you as a record store want to make money, you have to go through the system. If you as a radio station want to get listeners, you have to go through the system. If you as a listener, want to hear the music your friends are listening to, you have to go through the system.
Or you could pirate the music online.
But then of course the record companies blame all their failings on piracy and new technologies which need controlling. Then they sponsor their lobby groups who start the whining process. This results in the government (the apparent representative of the people) being suckered in into passing laws which benefit the record industry and them only. The proposed Induce act in the US and blank media levies in Canada are examples of this. There is no mention of their restrictive business practices, their boneheaded economics, the lack of worthwhile content or the fact that they treat their customers as criminals.
It is really a sad thing that the music industry has such control on an area where culture and art should be made and celebrated for what it is. This whole situation is disrespectful to music and culture in general and it shows just how commercialized things have become. We can't even listen to music we like anymore without supporting an industry that disrespects us, the very people who support them.
And it is not as if the music industry is doing us any sort of favor in return. Why do we even need the music industry? A hundred years ago people were making music and enjoying music without any record companies. If the system of the record companies was to collapse today people would still make and enjoy music because music is part of our lifestyle. The record companies would claim that they serve as an agent to get good music out there and into our ears. Yet, with the Internet and it's distributed interconnectedness, we as a culture could do this distribution on our own. The Internet takes word of mouth to a whole new level - people can tell other people on a large scale what music is good. A whole new system could emmerge which would actively support music, creativity and enjoyment of it while at the same time allowing artists who gain popularity based on merit rather than manufactured popularity to make more money off of their work.
Oh, to dream.
This is very shocking indeed. Quite stupid I might add. Coincidental too in a way as I was in Future Shop the other day and asked why all the CD's had their prices scratched out. The gentleman told me CD sales were down over the last little while so they were in the process of raising the prices.
Explain to me how this will encourage CD sales in any way, shape or form. Executive 1, "CD sales are down, what should we do to increase them again?" Executive 2, "Let's raise the prices, that should work!" Executive 1, "Ya, ya, good idea, that'll work."
Troubling indeed. Solid article!
-Dave
Scathing!
I'm confident that just like the religious right, the music industries will get what they deserve.
I especially agree with point #2. The price of downloads has to be cheaper than buying the CDs in store. When I got into a store and a new CD is $14.99 Cdn., I consider that I will save $5 buying it online. It may be more convenient to have the physical media, so that I can always re-rip it if something happens to the data, but buying it digitally can save me money. Making the price difference less significant or non-existant would help kill the legal download market, which is maybe what the record companies want to do anyway.
Personally, since the advent of P2P networking, I have bought less CDs, but more vinyl. For me, vinyl has been my prefered format for music. I have had my record player hooked up since grade eight. Still though, buying new vinyl was a hassle because it wasn't portable, and widespread. Once the p2p networking became widespread, however, my vinyl collection saw rapid growth since I could buy the record to listen to at home and download the tracks for other formats.
I download, but I still buy music. I buy record and CDs at a pretty steady 1:1 ratio, and most of my downloaded music is rare and hard to find or one or two track off of an otherwise lackluster album. You're right when you say that record companies are completely out of touch. The fact is people WANT to buy music, but with the rising costs of EVERYTHING these days, people are just looking for a break.
I apologize for the rant.
Fuck yeah, humester! You tell those record companies, those heartless bastards.
Anyways, it occurred to me while reading that I haven't bought a CD for a long time, but I've been downloading albums like some sort of crazed downloading creature ever since I got this direct connect hooked up. I love music, but I don't want to buy it, in fact I'm pretty cool with downloading it for free. And do I feel bad? Not really. Which leads me to believe that it is not a wrong thing to do, or I would feel bad right? Much like other things I won't get into, it's against the law but I don't care cause I don't think buying music is any more right than downloading it.
In conclusion, I love jeff hume's blog. Keep it up dawg.