You know if you click on the bottom of the iTunes home page, you can visit other stores.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can’t BUY anything from another country’s store, since the insane record companies have to adhere to their release dates, because marketing is KING, but you can at least peruse\/look through the plate glass window.\u00c2\u00a0 (If you’ve got a foreign credit card THEN you can buy from a foreign store, but how many people have this?)<\/p>\n
I wanted to see where the Feeling was on the U.K. chart.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s number 22.\u00c2\u00a0 But what I was fascinated by were the PRICES!<\/p>\n
Now if you have a Mac, go into your Applications folder and double-click "Calculator".\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, drag it to the Dock, because you’ll want to use it on a regular basis, since it’s so much more powerful than the standard widget.<\/p>\n
Now after launching Calculator, go to the Convert menu, and click on the last choice, "Update Currency Exchange Rates", so you can have a pounds sterling to dollar conversion that’s up to the MINUTE!\u00c2\u00a0 And then type in 7.90, the standard price at the U.K. iTunes Music Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Then go back to the Convert menu, and click on Currency and choose Pound Sterling to U.S. dollar.\u00c2\u00a0 And what you’ll find out is a fucking digital file album, sans packaging, sans disc, sans anything but the lousy compressed files with DRM no less, costs $14.69 cents in the U.K.\u00c2\u00a0 But it gets worse, MUCH worse.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say you want the new Jet album, or the John Mayer album, then the price is 9.48 pounds sterling, or $17.63.\u00c2\u00a0 But, it gets even WORSE!\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say you want the Justin Timberlake record, then you pay 9.99, or $18.57 cents.\u00c2\u00a0 Same price for Diddy’s new masterpiece.\u00c2\u00a0 As for Dylan’s "Modern Times", you’re paying 8.99, or $16.72.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS IS FUCKING NUTS!<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me about the classically high prices for music in the U.K.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t tell me about the value of music.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re competing against FREE!<\/p>\n
It’s kind of like God came down and blessed the labels with a new way of doing business, one that eliminated all kinds of costs, from manufacturing to shipping, and rather than seeing this as a way of increasing business, the greedy labels said LET’S PARTY!\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll take that money STRAIGHT TO THE BOTTOM LINE!<\/p>\n
And I don’t want to hear about how acts need to get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve been following this story, the U.K. managers agitated for a raise from the pittance their charges are being paid for iTunes downloads.<\/p>\n
But it gets worse again.\u00c2\u00a0 These same managers actually believe the iTunes Store is the future, THE WAY OUT!<\/p>\n
Why don’t the wireless companies eliminate free nights and weekends and calls to others utilizing the same service and charge the same as they are now, if not MORE!\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the record companies are doing here.<\/p>\n
If you’re not stealing music, either you’re the most law-abiding person on the planet, or you’re lying.<\/p>\n
There’s more than one way to steal music, there isn’t only P2P.<\/p>\n
Let’s see, you can borrow your friends’ CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Or you can borrow your friends’ BURNED CDS, that they made from OTHER CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Or you can swap hard drives, transferring thousands of songs in minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, you can trade via IM, a process that is wholly beyond the long arm of the RIAA and is burgeoning but is unreported because it would illustrate how like George Bush the labels don’t report all the facts, for they’d look bad.<\/p>\n
Sure, your cable\/satellite bill might go up, but you GET MORE!\u00c2\u00a0 The future is not about paying more for less.\u00c2\u00a0 What kind of crazy fucked up world is THAT?<\/p>\n
God, if the labels controlled computerdom, PCs would still cost $2,500 and would feature Intel 386 chips and less than a megabyte of RAM.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, these same execs saying the CD is good enough would state WHO NEEDS MORE!<\/p>\n
Why don’t we go back to the Model T.\u00c2\u00a0 The Edsel.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t we drive cars without airbags.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t we eviscerate YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s overprice the future so everybody will stay in the PAST!<\/p>\n
But that’s impossible.<\/p>\n
It’s a global world, you can download hit TV shows, never mind movies and music, from BitTorrent in minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Catching up on what’s hip in the U.K. in the U.S. or vice versa, and we’ve got the MPAA talking about country codes, as if it’s a disc future.<\/p>\n
Am I the only one completely flummoxed as to the logic of the content owners?<\/p>\n
Or is it that everybody under the age of twenty knows the disc is dead and believes content is free and the old farts controlling the media are holding this story back because they either don’t understand it or don’t want to give up lunch with the fat cats spinning falsehoods.<\/p>\n
What’s next?\u00c2\u00a0 Hard drives that hold less and cost more?\u00c2\u00a0 More expensive DVDs?\u00c2\u00a0 Fewer cable channels for the same price?\u00c2\u00a0 Slower DSL for more money?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the ghost of Rod Serling has taken over the world and we’re all living in the TWILIGHT ZONE!<\/p>\n
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