It's outrageous how much coin some people are getting fined for getting caught downloading and sharing copyrighted files through p2p sources. Rediculous numbers that will ruin people financially forever, just for downloading music? I don't see the sense in it. The music industry is worth millions already yet they're trying to take on the file sharing issue by cracking the whip on people who just want a few free files. To fine them far beyond their means is an outrage. With the ability to get almost any show, movie, song or any other media ever created at the tip of your fingers, it's surely hard to resist. The file sharers are not hurting anyone! How about ruining the lives of rapists and pedophiles or gangbangers that are free to do these malicious acts because they haven't been caught. Our laws and punishments in this country are ass-backwards. From the artist's standpoint it's not a totally horrible thing that people are "pirating" your music. This causes way more exposure because your product is more readily available, which makes live performance attendances go up. So many people participate in file sharing these days and its never going to go away. The scare-tactics of the punishments are not affecting the amount of files being shared or the amount of people who participate, so why ruin lives over it? Are their peoples lives being ruined BECAUSE of file sharing? Fuck no.
i think your way off comparing it to like rapists and shit... they arent free to run around doing that, they get caught and busted, just like some pot smokers and some murderers and some file downloaders. The music industry works hard to create new fresh original material and they dont do it only to have one copy bought and leaked to the internet. i was recently at an asking alexandria show and the singer said something like 'were gonna play a new song called (i forget) how many of heard it from the internet?' and a couple people cheered and he said 'good not many, fuck that shit'. they dont enjoy it for whatever reason, exposure or not. like i download music illegally too cuz fuck paying for it, but if i really like the band and feel they should have my support i will buy their albums and pay for tickets to their shows.
no joke. artists should be flattered that people want their music. but i think it's the major record labels that are really behind it. they're the ones whoring musicians out to make a buck. the big four being... well, anything that's not an "indie" label... *edit* graph represents U.S. market share of record labels, pulled from wiki
Just comparing it to rapists/pedophiles/gangbangers because how many of them are out there that haven't been caught? I'm sure it is a pretty high number. I know a handful of girls who say they have been raped/taken advantage of and they never speak up. I'm sure its rather prevalent if you think about how many college campuses have huge parties where everybody gets wasted and throws their inhibition out the window. As for gangbanging, my city has a lower-class urban area in the center that has a population of 40,800 people, where people are getting shot, killed, stabbed, robbed every day and a good bit of the suspects remain unknown. These are the dirtbag lowlifes that are getting away with violent crimes that the enforcers should concentrate on, not the 17 year old kid in your neighborhood who wanted to get a few albums on his computer. Downloading is habitual by so many in our culture and to hand out these types of punishments, years in jail and astronomically-high fines isn't going to solve anything.
Good thing everything from Warner, Universal, Sony, and EMI is garbage. They can track their justin beiber torrents all they want cuz im not downloading them So yeah i download music, Ill buy an album if its really good and the band markets and distributes it themselves. Its not like i download music because i would have bought it if it I had the money for it, but because artists are making 5-10% of each CD Sold and the record company gets the rest, id rather support them by going to their Shows and buying their T-Shirts
The smart bands are starting to offer their new albums for free, or a small donation, like Radiohead. They've seemed to be doing pretty well with that. Then make the bulk of their money off of touring. I'm not a fan of Pretty Lights, but they have had the best business model out of any recent group I can remember, they gave out their albums for free (I say they, but it's really all Derek Smith), blew up the college scene, and now they are headlining a sold-out show at Red Rocks in Colorado. Which is like a 9600 person venue. I also heard he is getting $100,000 for the show. He did this all in the span of about three years, which is pretty incredible.
if you think that, you are really missing out on some quality bands. no im not talking like justin beiber shit but the first that comes to mind and my favorite band, avenged sevenfold, is signed to warner.
disco biscuits are signed to a label under warner... john butler trio - sony neil young - universal and warner just to name a few artists you've mentioned on the boards...
Some of those larger labels spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce music for big artists. Every time someone illegally downloads one of those songs, its like stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This prevents the record companies and bands involved from getting a profit. If any business doesnt get profit, how do you expect them to operate? Also, more illegal downloads results in increased prices, and eventually the downfall of some great bands. They SHOULD sue you for stealing their music. Youre only contributing to the destruction of bands and labels, simply because youre too cheap to spent a lousy $10 on a CD, or 99 cents on an mp3.
I guess its something I don't understand from the marketing perspective. If a recording artist is talented at what they do, why do they depend so heavily on the record label? As Kshock said.......... .....if it's true they're only getting such a small percentage of the profits, I would think they would take their talent elsewhere. If you have the talent that a large demographic has an ear for, why sacrifice your profit by signing to a label that is going to make more money than you from a talent that YOU posess? And no, I'm not too cheap to spend "a lousy $10" on a CD, but when there are so many albums that I'd like to have, don't you think it seems a little redundant to spend $2,000 on them when I can get them for free? Most of them who aren't under contract with the major labels? I also understand what you're saying about the downfall of great bands/artists due to increased prices. It's like shoplifting....If a bunch of people go into a convenience store to shoplift, the general cost of goods is going to increase. I get that. Why is is then, that no matter how many songs are "pirated", the cost of an mp3 on itunes stays the same? Itunes remains a cheap and reliable source to pay for music, yet it never increases no matter now many songs are downloaded for free via p2p sources. 99.9% of the people who share files are not doing it for monetary gain, which means they are not ripping files to copy and sell it for a profit. They are doing it because of the availability of any form of media they could ever want without having to pay. Violating COPYRIGHTS= copying and selling for profit, PIRACY= robbing ships on the high seas
^ That. Thank you. It's basically like they're saying: don't like a lot of bands, just like the few we want you to like. Buy those CDs. Because we know when you only make 8 dollars an hour, or 960 dollars a month, and you only have 60 dollars after bills and groceries and rent, you can afford to buy CDs... lots of em. Say like 3000 of em. Wait. I went too quickly but I should wrap it up anyway... If I had to buy my music instead of what I do now, I wouldn't have heard of ... most... all... my music. A lot of the underground hiphop can only be picked up at their shows when they come through. Look at dubstep, techno, ambient, trance, psychedelic... there's so much of it... Point is, thousands of dollars. If you can't afford it, listen to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Drake. Not a very convincing argument. But that's how they'd have it if they could hunt every one of us down. God Forbid. btw
If someone is downloading something for free it doesnt mean if that option wasnt there they would have paid for it. I only download stuff I would never pay for otherwise. I think it's actually good for a lot of artists cause it gets a lot of new people access to their music