

Record Labels Waged War on Human Psychology, and Lost - discolemonade
http://madepublishing.com/wp/2010/05/record_labels_waged_war_on_human_psychology/

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nkohari
The same thing happened with FM radio, the cassette tape, and the VCR. I
sympathize to a certain degree with the record labels, but they're essentially
just middlemen. Door-to-door vacuum salespeople were undoubtedly upset when
the market shifted and made their business model irrelevant -- the primary
difference is that vacuum salespeople don't have a powerful lobby presence and
thousands of attorneys on retainer.

Personally, I'll never buy another CD, because I feel like the prices are
artificially inflated to sustain a large number of unnecessary middlemen in an
outdated supply chain. I do miss the feeling of buying a new album, reading
the insert, and so forth -- but it's just not worth it to me knowing I'm
funding the record labels' war on their own customers.

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chadgeidel
I don't want to sound "elitist" but I still enjoy buying CD's from artists
websites. Usually they let you download the MP3 album and ship the CD to you.
Best of both worlds.

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nkohari
The money still goes to the labels, because of the licensing agreements they
have in place.

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elis
Interesting. I actually used to use iTunes a lot, but I've lost a lot of music
through them. The first time was before I had my iPod, and my old computer
died. I had tried to make an mp3 cd of those songs before the compy died, but
back then, iTunes didn't allow it. I went to iTunes on my new computer, and I
wasn't allowed to re-download the songs I'd already purchased.

I have a lot of issues with iTunes and iPods (how the hell do I transfer music
from my iPod to my PC? This is really not clear), but I actually want to pay
for music, and so far, it's the best fit for me.

It was really laughable when Sony installed malware on peoples' computers for
having legitimately purchased their music cd, and then was unapologetic about
it.

I always argue that people should pay for copyrighted material, rather than
violate the copyright, but when I read some of the stories about the RIAA's
activities, I feel like I'm playing the devil's advocate.

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spicyj
Did you try contacting Apple about redownloading the music? I've heard that
they're usually sympathetic to people who lose downloaded music when computers
and hard disks die.

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elis
No, I never tried. This was years ago. I don't even remember the songs.
Perhaps I can ask them to check their records. Thanks for the idea.

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yesimahuman
I think that almost every single time I buy a CD I get buyers remorse. I have
decided I will never buy another CD or single track, as I get this feeling
even from buying a single track on iTunes. Thankfully, mog.com alleviates all
of my remorse!

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yesimahuman
Thanks for the down votes. I feel like sites like mog.com (I'm just a happy
customer) are really much better than any alternatives. They have all of the
songs I want, I don't have to download anything, and I don't have to pay per
track. So, if I don't like a song, I don't feel bad about it. Add social
features on top of that and the experience is even better.

As a customer, I don't feel cheated with subscription services. I think they
are a real way to stop piracy and make people want to pay for music again.

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mapleoin
and so you don't care about sound quality?

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yesimahuman
I've never noticed an issue with mog sound quality. AFAIC it's great. I'm sure
other services are on par with that. While the difference between a CD and a
stream are noticeable, it's like watching a netflix movie on your xbox and
watching the actual DVD: I prefer netflix for the convenience and price and my
friends do too.

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rdrimmie
A related data point is the Humble Indie Bundle, which is a pay-anything
(including $.01) software bundle that is experiencing fairly heavy levels of
piracy.

[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-
giv...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-
pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars)

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rick888
"A related data point is the Humble Indie Bundle, which is a pay-anything
(including $.01) software bundle that is experiencing fairly heavy levels of
piracy."

This shows further proof that the people bitching about DRM still won't pay
for software if they can easily get it for free. This is why you need to have
some sort of copy protection in place if you are going to sell software.

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theBobMcCormick
I'm not sure how it does, since "copy protection" never seems to stop
software, music, movies, etc. from showing up on pirate sites. I honestly
don't know what the answer is, but DRM is really a pain-in-the-ass for
legitimate customers who are perfectly happy paying money for their software,
movies, etc., but it doesn't seem like it ever amounts to more than a minor
speedbump to pirates.

I'm sympathetic to software devs, musicians, movie makers, etc. who don't want
to see their work pirated, I really am. But as a customer, I FUCKING HATE
being treated like a criminal when I try to play games, watch movies, etc.
that I legitimately fucking payed for.

I don't see how this is a sustainable situation, particularly when each new
generation of DRM seems to punish legitimate _paying_ customers harder than
the last generation.

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rick888
"I'm sympathetic to software devs, musicians, movie makers, etc. who don't
want to see their work pirated, I really am. But as a customer, I FUCKING HATE
being treated like a criminal when I try to play games, watch movies, etc.
that I legitimately fucking payed for."

How is copy protection treating you like a criminal? Do you FUCKING HATE when
the website for your bank makes you login with a username/password to prove
your identity?

"I don't see how this is a sustainable situation, particularly when each new
generation of DRM seems to punish legitimate paying customers harder than the
last generation."

If you really want to blame someone, blame the pirates. DRM was created as a
direct result of things like Napster and most recently, thepiratebay. Most
people laughed in the faces of the software, music, and movie industry. They
never offered any kind of solution for those industries to make money and
continued to download their work for free. Now, customers are complaining and
wondering why there is so much copy protection on software and games.

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theBobMcCormick
Oddly enough, I believe Cracked.com has an appropriate and well timed
rebuttal: [http://www.cracked.com/article_18513_5-insane-file-
sharing-p...](http://www.cracked.com/article_18513_5-insane-file-sharing-
panics-from-before-internet.html)

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hackermom
Excellent article really nailing the root of things.

