It’s this kind of stuff that got the labels in trouble in the FIRST PLACE!<\/p>\n
Why do these companies feel that their actions have no consequences?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s
not only record labels, it’s the radio industry too.\u00c2\u00a0 They cut the playlists,
added a ton of commercials and what happened??\u00c2\u00a0 PEOPLE STOPPED LISTENING!\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, they keep making new people every day, the population is increasing, but radio listenership is down.<\/p>\n
In the nineties the labels released shittier and shittier acts with only one
good track on their CDs that kept going up in price.\u00c2\u00a0 The companies believed
they had all the power, that they could DICTATE to the marketplace.<\/p>\n
Wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 The customer ALWAYS has the power.\u00c2\u00a0 To see P2P services purely in the
context of free is to miss the point.\u00c2\u00a0 From the very BEGINNING of Napster,
when fewer people were trading files than today, however much publicity the
practice was receiving, college students were TESTIFYING!\u00c2\u00a0 Albums sucked and were overpriced to boot!\u00c2\u00a0 And that they wanted to acquire music in a new way.<\/p>\n
The battle is over.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple’s already sold 22 million iPods.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t expect a
fall-off for Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 The iPod Nano will be hotter than any album released
by the Big Four.\u00c2\u00a0 iPod users want the file, the CD is irrelevant, unless it’s
used as a ripping device.\u00c2\u00a0 WHICH IT CAN NO LONGER BE!<\/p>\n
Instead of looking towards the future, getting AHEAD of the marketplace and
corralling the public in a profit-making venture, the labels want to keep
everybody in the past.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to focus on CD sales.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
and the other powers say they BELIEVE in the digital sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 But the iTunes
Music Store and Rhapsody and Yahoo Music are INHERENTLY crippled services that
the public is not interested in.\u00c2\u00a0 Only a tiny FRACTION of the public utilizes
these services.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they don’t deliver what people want, which is much more
USABLE music at a LOW PRICE!\u00c2\u00a0 But, these services do one thing the labels
LOVE!\u00c2\u00a0 They make the CD look like a good alternative.\u00c2\u00a0 This is like selling
Hyundais with three wheels and saying horse and buggies look good in comparison!\u00c2\u00a0 Or, as the Firesign Theatre once said, "How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?"<\/p>\n
TODAY the CD is the main revenue generator.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no problem with labels
selling CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 To switch to files only would decimate their bottom lines.\u00c2\u00a0 But,
by not preparing for the future adequately, they’re INSURING their marginality
in the era to come.\u00c2\u00a0 They somehow believe their big budget productions sold
solely in the way they want will rule in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think so.\u00c2\u00a0 I think
independent acts are going to eat their lunch.\u00c2\u00a0 After EMI gets burned by
giving all that money to Korn they won’t be ponying up that kind of dough in the
future.\u00c2\u00a0 Which will INSURE that the artists of the future, or at least SOME OF
THEM, those who treasure artistry over greed, will do it all themselves.\u00c2\u00a0
Invest little in dollars but a lot in sweat and get a lot back.\u00c2\u00a0 NOTHING is being
done by the majors to combat this paradigm.\u00c2\u00a0 This paradigm is what they fear.\u00c2\u00a0
Then again, maybe I can’t berate them for defending a dying business model.\u00c2\u00a0
But do they have to do it via a disinformation campaign and the suit of music
LOVERS?\u00c2\u00a0 I mean they can live in the past, but must we ALL?<\/p>\n
But what’s bad about copy protected CDs is they’re insulting the people who
are PLAYING ALONG with the majors’ game.\u00c2\u00a0 The people willing to plunk down ten
to fifteen bucks for a disc.\u00c2\u00a0 They can’t duplicate the CD for use in their
car, and they CAN’T RIP THE FILES FOR USE ON AN iPOD!<\/p>\n
What I hate about fat cats is they’re so technologically stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 You insert
one of these CDs into your computer and it adds all this software, just to
PLAY the disc!\u00c2\u00a0 Windows XP is rickety enough.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re going to add an untested
program which might interfere with not only other programs but your whole SYSTEM
just to hear a fucking CD??\u00c2\u00a0 Talk to computer users.\u00c2\u00a0 They see that warning
that they’re about to install software on their PC and they FREAK OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 In an
era where viruses and spyware make your machine almost unusable you DO NOT want to add anything unnecessary to the mix.<\/p>\n
But, you can rip copy protected WMAs.<\/p>\n
I’ve got to ask you, when you think of digital music do you think of
MICROSOFT??\u00c2\u00a0 Is that the big name in digital music?\u00c2\u00a0 No, you think of APPLE!\u00c2\u00a0 And,
Apple’s iPods won’t play copy protected WMAs.\u00c2\u00a0 Why should they?\u00c2\u00a0 Apple should
give Microsoft an in after the company monopolized the market for desktop
software?\u00c2\u00a0 (Yup, Microsoft was ADJUDGED a monopolist by the government.)\u00c2\u00a0 It would be one thing if the Microsoft solution was better.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 There ain’t a
player on the market as good as the iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not JUKEBOX software as
good as iTunes made by Microsoft or any other third party.\u00c2\u00a0 Microsoft’s tethered
download software Janus???\u00c2\u00a0 It’s so defective that Yahoo won’t even charge
for its use.\u00c2\u00a0 And APPLE is supposed to capitulate?<\/p>\n
But, you say, Apple has DRM, known as FairPlay.<\/p>\n
But I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.\u00c2\u00a0 Just about every file on the
iPods in this world have no copy protection.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they were ripped from CD
or acquired P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 As far as this copy protection battle goes, the public thinks
it’s a joke.<\/p>\n
So, what we need are unprotected files that everybody can acquire and pay
for.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve got every element except the last.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve had P2P for five plus
years.\u00c2\u00a0 But the labels refuse to charge for it.\u00c2\u00a0 We have the SOLUTION, but they’d
rather spend money suing than collecting.<\/p>\n
The labels are clueless here.\u00c2\u00a0 They think the fact that copy protected CDs
are selling today means nobody cares.\u00c2\u00a0 The backlash is BREWING!\u00c2\u00a0 There are
entries on Weblogs.\u00c2\u00a0 People are PISSED!\u00c2\u00a0 The majors are just further breaking the
trust with their customers.\u00c2\u00a0 Insuring division.\u00c2\u00a0 PROMPTING file-trading.<\/p>\n
Really, you label heads, the people making this inane decision to copy
protect CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m telling you now.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re wreaking havoc on your bottom line that
you can’t foresee.<\/p>\n
Then again, maybe you don’t foresee further employment.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you don’t plan
on sticking around that long.<\/p>\n
If you believe CD burning is the culprit, the reason sales are down, then you
probably believe landlines are hurting the cell phone business.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably
believe that cheap typewriters at flea markets are hurting the computer
business.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably believe copy machines are challenging e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably
believe the floppy is hurting hard disk sales.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably believe the
cassette Walkman is challenging the iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably believe radio is hurting
album sales.\u00c2\u00a0 You probably believed home taping killed the music business.<\/p>\n
But it did not.<\/p>\n
It’s not free to burn a CD.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to BUY the CD.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to take
the time to burn it.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to give it to a friend.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s absent artwork.\u00c2\u00a0
And it’s not what you want ANYWAY, you just want the FILES!<\/p>\n
Why can’t the labels just cut to the chase.\u00c2\u00a0 Why can’t they make files
available cheaply and easily.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re living in the future.\u00c2\u00a0 No, we’re living in the
PRESENT!\u00c2\u00a0 This is the system that exists TODAY!\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t anybody acknowledge it?
Do we have to wait until EVERYBODY trades P2P and sales are dismal?\u00c2\u00a0 This is
not unlike what happened in New Orleans.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody knew the levees were
weak, that there was an accident waiting to happen.\u00c2\u00a0 They just figured if they
ignored it, maybe it wouldn’t happen on their watch.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, disaster hit and the
public saw how incompetent those in charge were.<\/p>\n
The public already knows how incompetent the record labels are.\u00c2\u00a0 The only
people who DON’T know are the labels themselves.<\/p>\n
But every fucking week sales get worse.\u00c2\u00a0 You’d think they’d address the
underlying problems.\u00c2\u00a0 Lousy overhyped acts selling overpriced CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 But rather than
deal with the CORE they’d rather deal with the penumbra.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not THEIR
fault but the customers’.\u00c2\u00a0 If we just make it a little harder to steal, everything
will be all right.<\/p>\n
But it’s not.<\/p>\n
And you can still steal anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 By burning the files to disk and then
re-ripping them.<\/p>\n
But why do that?\u00c2\u00a0 When from the moment you purchase the CD the unprotected
MP3s of the music contained therein ARE ALREADY AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET FOR
FREE!\u00c2\u00a0 Only the record labels would INCENTIVIZE their customers to steal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s this kind of stuff that got the labels in trouble in the FIRST PLACE! Why do these companies feel that their actions have no consequences?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not only record labels, it’s the radio industry too.\u00c2\u00a0 They cut the playlists, added a ton of commercials and what happened??\u00c2\u00a0 PEOPLE STOPPED LISTENING!\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, they keep making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-2t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}