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Thread: file sharing music: Help or harm the industry?

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    Default file sharing music: Help or harm the industry?

    Below is an essay of sorta I have written based on a mixture of my opinion (probably too much of that, where your comments might be helpful) and facts on sharing music over the internet and effects on the industry and artists. Please bring up any point you feel are wrong or poorly backed up, and provide reasons or counterpoints.
    This is an issue very close to home for me so it may be biased, any arguments against sharing music are welcome.
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    The music industry claims a lot of monetary losses through file sharing on the grounds that every download would otherwise have been a sale, which is a flawed logic. In fact many people download music and then go on to buy it later if they liked it (if they hadn't they would not have bought it, and buying something you don't like you end up taking it back to the CD shop anyway).

    Those people who do not buy any music CDs at all but do download music are possibly causing a small revenue loss to the industry, but on the whole are people who don't value music incredibly highly and would not have purchased many, maybe any CDs if they could not download.

    Music shared on the internet is comparable with the quality of a very cheap radio, often not even that good, and therefore serves as little better than a kind of sample which helps promote the musicians. I-tunes and other online music shops sell these low quality versions of tracks as downloads at almost the same expense as the comparatively much better sounding CDs.

    Without the internet and arguably file sharing to promote musicians, many ticket sales for concerts would be lost. Also, only bands the music industry decides are popular enough to be properly produced and sold (also known as cookie cutter bands) would be heard and new upcoming talent and originality is ignored and effectively crushed. The internet is a good place where new, original bands may be found and heard thus gaining otherwise ignored bands a fan base controlled not by an executive in the music industry's decision but by the people who like the music themselves.

    It is also often noted that artists get a pittance out of the profit made from a CD sale and would make a much lager profit selling on-line at 20 pence a track independently than allowing the industry and retailers to soak up all the profits. My personal wish is to listen to and support the artists, not some large industry that discourages my taste in music if it happens to be less than hugely popular.

    �UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September. �- BBC news during final quarter of 2004. And yet, even with this success, the BPA (British phonographic industry) are deciding to start suing major file-sharers in the UK. Suing people who are freely giving up bandwidth for the promotion of content they enjoy at no advertising expense.

    To try and protect their 'intellectual property', DRM (digital right management) is being developed and products encumbered with this are already being sold alongside other CDs. DRM restricts the legitimate customers use of the product they bought to try and make it only playable and copyable in ways which the DRM determines rather than any way a customer sees fit. (copying to lend to a friend, play in a car CD player, use on portable music players. Sometimes even won't play on normal CD players). While people with no intention or little want to illegally distribute the content on their CDs are having their rights reduced, those who want to copy the media still do via 'cracking' the DRM, and whatever type of DRM is introduced it will be possible to copy from the speaker output manually. In short, you cannot prevent a media being copied but you can limit the rights of your customers.

    Online music sales services are rapidly becoming more popular ways to get music. Although it may never fully replace hard copies of the product (until the restricted uses of the hard copy are at least as bad as the online counterpart). Far from every person who enjoys music has a computer.
    Secure online sales will continue to increase as price drops and/or quality of service improves and people can continue to select individual tracks they want to buy.

    It is equally flawed to sue a 12 year old as any other age group for downloading music. A 12 year old may well be more innocent, and also may be the most likely age group to download popular music (the genre which the industry thrives on most) but a 12 year old would never have been able to buy very much music with pocket money or off of the parents wallets, meaning that there is no 'financial loss' occurring due to these downloads, merely free gain on the part of the child.
    Last edited by Norgus; 30th-December-2004 at 19:29.

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    music is to expensive to buy,and famous musicians make too much money already

    although im not ionto dling shit anymore,i dont think its wrong,
    charging me 20 pound a cd(like 35-40$)now thats friggin wrong.

    well whatever music industry sucks ass
    Last edited by Dinosaurman; 30th-December-2004 at 23:44.

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    The recording industries don't care. They merely want to scare people shitless by filing massive lawsuits for people who download and share copyrighted music.

    Downloading music is fine as long as you don't go around downloading full albums, which is what I do. I'd buy more than a couple hundred albums from relatively unknown bands if I could find them in stores, but I don't, so I try to support the bands by buying their merchandise or seeing them live.

    I could care less about bands that sell millions of records. Ie. : I would never buy a Metallica album now, those mofos indulge in luxury. Just buy the stuff from bands that you like, but preferably from those that can barely feed themselves. So yeah, go download the latest Snoop Dogg album.

    I have well over 80 Gb of downloaded albums in my possession, and I do feel somewhat guilty, mainly for the really underground bands that I've fucked over. Like you said, it is not like the company themselves are losing much profit, the actual band suffers slightly. I would purchase numerous albums if they were priced reasonably, were available to me other than through ordering them, and most of all: if I had all that cash.

    So if you want to support your band/artist, and they're under a big-ass label, then support them by other means rather than buying their albums. Less cash for the greedy bastards behind the RIAA.

    Once again: www.boycott-riaa.com owns you.

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    Thanks for those replies, I believe a band can make the real money at concerts and gigs, as well as from merchandise.
    What would be nice is if more bands started selling their music privately as high quality downloads (no, not Itunes where its lossy + costs too much). But those signed to a label are normally restricted from selling via alternate means.

    Does anyone know good arguments against music downloading, or for suing downloaders?
    It would be nice to present a more balanced looking piece.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Norgus
    Does anyone know good arguments against music downloading, or for suing downloaders?
    It would be nice to present a more balanced looking piece.
    Lolzorz. That's not really possible. I'm sure you can find something at the MPAA or RIAA's official websites... or can you? The only person who would adimately oppose to filesharing music/movies would be:
    1. A greedy MPAA/RIAA CEO.
    2. A greedy band/artist under a RIAA label(probably because their label told them to bitch).

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    Oh yeah, wasn't the whole deal with metallica against Napster because the RIAA riled them up about it?

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    my fav band "the minibosses"encourages people to dl and share there music so they can get a lil better known and get a bigger fan base and maybe start making some money

    there a metal band that only covers vid game music

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    What i think is that if someone doesn't want you stealing their music don't do it. You shouldn't use the argument that says "they have too much money already" or "music costs to much" because they will just say, "then don't buy our music". See if they don't want you to steal something that is their's, then don't do it because it is there property and we do live in a free society to make as much money as you want. Also don't say that the concerts wouldn't sell out if people weren't file-sharing because you would have no proof of that. Just my thoughts on it.
    "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy." -Frank Sinatra

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    Quote Originally Posted by Norgus
    Does anyone know good arguments against music downloading, or for suing downloaders?
    It would be nice to present a more balanced looking piece.
    I know a good argument. If they know you downloading, they are invading your privacy by hacking into your computer through the IP address to know where you live etc. They shouldn't know you downloading stuff unless you told the whole world you are.
    In Australia, not sure about other country's law, you cannot analyse personal data in a way, which means if they found the IP address of the person downloading, they not allow to find out the person's name and the address.
    Beside, not everyone wants to buy a whole album just for a few songs, or singles with irrelevant remixes. Plus, not all of us are millionaires.

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    Quote Originally Posted by happy_gal
    I know a good argument. If they know you downloading, they are invading your privacy by hacking into your computer through the IP address to know where you live etc. They shouldn't know you downloading stuff unless you told the whole world you are.
    In Australia, not sure about other country's law, you cannot analyse personal data in a way, which means if they found the IP address of the person downloading, they not allow to find out the person's name and the address.
    Beside, not everyone wants to buy a whole album just for a few songs, or singles with irrelevant remixes. Plus, not all of us are millionaires.
    Aww yes bringing the old money thing into it. If you don't have the money for music then you don't get to buy it, the same way with everything else in life.
    "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy." -Frank Sinatra

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    Quote Originally Posted by happy_gal
    I know a good argument. If they know you downloading, they are invading your privacy by hacking into your computer through the IP address to know where you live etc. They shouldn't know you downloading stuff unless you told the whole world you are.

    When you download through a P2P, you do tell the whole world where you are... your broadcasting your IP to anyone that has the completed file...

    They can then get a Court Order to find out who you are based on your IP address....

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kosmo Yagkoto
    What i think is that if someone doesn't want you stealing their music don't do it. You shouldn't use the argument that says "they have too much money already" or "music costs to much" because they will just say, "then don't buy our music". See if they don't want you to steal something that is their's, then don't do it because it is there property and we do live in a free society to make as much money as you want. Also don't say that the concerts wouldn't sell out if people weren't file-sharing because you would have no proof of that. Just my thoughts on it.


    i feel ya but thats why i dont buy or dl music anymore,i just listen to minibosses and megaman 2 and 3 ost's

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    CD's are way cooler than a bunch of files on your HD...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kosmo Yagkoto
    What i think is that if someone doesn't want you stealing their music don't do it. You shouldn't use the argument that says "they have too much money already" or "music costs to much" because they will just say, "then don't buy our music". See if they don't want you to steal something that is their's, then don't do it because it is there property and we do live in a free society to make as much money as you want. Also don't say that the concerts wouldn't sell out if people weren't file-sharing because you would have no proof of that. Just my thoughts on it.
    We agree... the world is comming to an end...

    If your going to do it, do it... just dont try to justify it.

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    I'm not for or against downloading music, just in the middle. I just help provide a balance argument for downloading music. Downloading music has it disadvantage. Have you relised how cheap is the real copy of the cd cost in asia in comparison to australia?. That is because in asia countries, they have to compete with the pirated market and so countries like australia have a high price cds.
    But to balance it off, the companies are still actually earn money from singles. I read in the newspaper that downloading music helps boost the sales of buying singles.

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