

Home taping didn’t kill music - baha_man
http://www.badscience.net/2009/06/home-taping-didnt-kill-music/

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justin_vanw
Anyone who thinks that filesharing hasn't totally killed record industry
profits is either crazy rationalizing or stupid beyond belief.

I can tell you that I would have bought many, many albums if things like
bittorrent didn't exist. Since I can just get mp3's from bittorrent or my
friends, unscrupulous people like me can basically get unlimited free music,
although I do often buy music on iTunes to get a high bitrate non-defective
copy of an album I especially like (Tea for the Tillerman, Neon Bible, Trial
of Van Occupanther). I hate going to concerts, so I only do it when people
convince me to go along, and certainly no more than I would if music wasn't
free. The bands I like are probably about the same as the ones I liked pre-
filesharing, minus ones I've grown out of (Tool, Radiohead, Weezer -- I've
bought albums from all these bands pre-filesharing days) plus ones I randomly
found on iTunes, plus ones I heard my wife listening to or on Last.FM. I
haven't found any new music via filesharing really.

The argument about filesharing is that it is impossible to stop, so attempting
to do so is pointless. The amount of government intervention necessary to
effectively end sharing of music (and thus violating copyright law) is so
draconian that given the balance of (good done by enforcing law) - (harm done
by enforcing law) is extremely in the negative.

When the government tries to enforce laws that people will not follow, it does
great harm to people's respect for the Law. Marijuana laws, too-low speed
limits and other laws that are ignored put people in the habit of ignoring the
law if they can get away with it. While Jeffersonians like me generally see
this as a healthy attitude (as no one gets hurt), it should still be our goal
to establish laws that aren't bullshit, if only for practical reasons (like
using the police to work on crime that we actually care about instead of
people going 65 instead of 55 on a flat, straight highway).

Since there is no way to stop filesharing, and reducing it at all will involve
huge monitoring of the internet, fuck it, change copyright law to reflect
reality, and let big music publishers join horse-shoe makers and coal delivery
men in the history books.

~~~
tc
That's interesting. I, on the other hand, was so disgusted by the RIAA's
tactics and lobbying that I stopped buying CDs altogether _without_ resorting
to (currently) illegal downloading of music.

I can make my own music. I decided many years ago I didn't need theirs that
much if they couldn't play nicely in the sandbox.

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quoderat
If bittorrent and Kazaa, Napster didn't exist, I wouldn't have even heard of
or even tried hundreds of artists, that then resulted in me buying their
albums and attending their concerts.

I estimate (very conservatively) because of Napster, Kazaa, Bittorrent, etc.,
I've spent thousands of dollars I otherwise wouldn't have on music, both on CD
purchases and at concerts.

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joel_feather
The record industry is dead. Anyone still trying to justify downloading in
that it has not affected the industry is just plain old stupid. Millions of
people who would have purchased did not because the music was available for
free. The selling of records industry is completely dead.

Music is not going anywhere, and the large payments that musicians have will
not be going anywhere either - they can easily make this money in concerts.

This is actually good - proceeds from a concert are spread out across a lot
more people than proceeds from a CD.

~~~
philh
And some people purchased who would not have done if the music hadn't been
available for free. I don't know if those sales made up for the people you
mentioned. But I'm sure you don't know either.

I agree that the record selling industry is dying, and probably can't be saved
as we know it.

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sanj
Taping is lossy. Digital copying is not (unless you want it to be).

Taping doesn't scale easily (tape trees notwithstanding).

Both these served to limit taping's impact.

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JVeinbergs
Well Apple did see a business model and made money.

Every time I read these articles I guess -people that at movie/music industry
- are they too old for technologies or what?

I don't need a CD, just content.

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TomOfTTB
The problem with biased analysis (like this article) is that it never gives
you a clear picture. I think we all know the music industry inflates their
numbers drastically to make the problem of music downloads appear worse than
it is. But the Norwegian study that says those who download music are 10 times
more likely to spend money on music is also pretty easy to debunk (the sample
size alone is enough reason to discredit it)

In the end I think the music industry is losing money not because of pirates
but because their market has evolved. Now people can buy the one good song on
an album and leave the rest behind (which cuts 90% of the record company’s
revenue). That alone explains their losses. But they’re clearly in denial
about it and looking for a bad guy. Music piracy fits the bill.

So imho most of the anti-piracy rhetoric is just label execs hoping there’s a
solution to their revenue problem (e.g. "if we just stop the pirates our
revenue will go back up")

~~~
marcus
Actually music exec have a solution to the problem it just takes a long time
to implement.

The solution is known as 360-contract. Currently labels profit only from the
selling of albums and some of the merchandise, but not from tours, sponsorship
deals or ads. An artist on a 360-contract pays the label a cut of
everything...

The assumption of the labels is that illegal downloads actually boost the
total value of the artist, but diminishes their share (artists make more money
on touring but less on the records). The labels have started to push their
artists to 360 contracts a while back, but until all the old contracts are up
for renegotiation they have no choice but fight the illegal downloading.

~~~
fallentimes
Why would the artists agree to that?

~~~
sdrinf
I imagine the relationship between the artist, and its contractor to be
similar of small groups of hackers, and their investors. At any given time a
record label has several "good enough" artists in their incomming tunnel to be
able to make them sign just about anything.

~~~
DannoHung
So, basically, the record labels have and always will need to rely on human
stupidity to turn a buck.

~~~
sp332
Yes, but now they only need to con a few people (the artists) instead of lots
of people (all the fans).

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mattmcknight
Nothing has "killed" music. There is still plenty of music being made and
listened to. Record labels- organizations that existed to finance the
manufacture of media and marketing of music are dead, because the marginal
cost of manufacturing bits is low, and marketing doesn't require payola to
hundreds of radio stations anymore, etc.

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GavinB
A great solution to goods with extremely low marginal cost is reasonably
priced unlimited subscription services. It's cheap, convenient, legal, and
benefits everyone.

Unfortunately Apple has used their near-monopoly in the music player market to
prevent subscription services, so Napster, Rhapsody, et al are cut off from
the majority of the market.

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jsz0
If a consumer decides not to spend money on copyrighted material it seems to
me they are likely choosing to spend that money elsewhere so it's unlikely
piracy causes any real harm to most economies. It may hurt a specific segment
but that's just the evolution of supply & demand at work.

I think the best argument against piracy being a major crisis in entertainment
is the quality of the products we've seen in the last few years since piracy
has really hit the mainstream. Lots of great movies, lots of good TV (so I
hear) and when it comes to music I would argue that for most people who
previously had a very limited spectrum of musical choices we're now in a
renaissance. I don't see any of my favorite bands going out of business,
quitting, or putting out subpar products. If anything we're seeing less
mainstream acts flourish since, for the first time, they can actually compete
with the mainstream.

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tophat02
To be fair: it wasn't as easy, quick, or high fidelity to tape music as it
currently is with ripping or pirating.

Not that I think either of those will "kill music"... it just kind of bothers
me when people make the comparison as if it's an exact analog (ha!).

