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CD, because I feel like the prices are artificially inflated to sustain a large number of unnecessary middlemen in an outdated supply chain.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.
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.
"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."
The problem is that many people say this, yet they still pirate music from independent labels and artists.
"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CD, because I feel like the prices are artificially inflated to sustain a large number of unnecessary middlemen in an outdated supply chain.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."
I hope you don't download them either. If you are, it makes me think you are just using this as an excuse to not pay for music.
I haven't done any downvotes, but I do note that you have made quite a few posts in regards to DRM and other forms of restricted access methods.
In your posts, I have noted the constant refrain of people being prone to theft. That may or may not be true.
Why then would music/game/whatever companies devote so many resources to something that only causes problems for actual (rare) paying customers? I don't think you have ever really answered that in a satisfactory way.
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.