Music Piracy War: A waste of time?

[Torplexed]

I think that the idea of free music on the internet is so powerful not because it’s free, but because it allows us to minimize the risk of being cheated. Free is so enticing because it eliminates the risk of buyer’s remorse. Nobody wants to buy something and then discover that it’s not what they expected. Even if the price of that thing is just a few cents, the psychological aversion still exists. When something is free, that risk is eliminated entirely. It may still not be what you expected, but at least you didn’t lose anything by paying for it.

There’s an entire group of people under the age of about 30 who believe that music should be free because that’s the world they’ve grown up in. So that’s where the future lies. The reason Steve Jobs and Apple have been so spectacularly successful at reinventing the music business is because they’re the only ones who’ve managed to invent a hardware and software platform that mitigates the risk factors involved in owning music and appeals to younger people. And they made it sexy and stylish. Apple didn’t win on technology. Nobody does, ultimately. They won on business smarts.

[Sailor Steve]

The record industry itself has a long history of cheating the performers and creators out of their just due, from Alan Lomax, a producer, putting his own copywright on unclaimed songs to collect royalties to Fantasy Records tricking John Fogerty into a contract that forced him to pay royalties to the record company every time he performed his own songs.

In this case they really are reaping what they've sown. No sympathy from this corner at all.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

. Apple didn’t win on technology. Nobody does, ultimately. They won on business smarts.

Which is precisely what the rapacious and exploitative music industry is busily raping music downloaders in order to compensate for. Business smarts kept Apple together - and totally in the game to boot - while every household in America was busily scarfing up PCs after Al Gore invented the Internet. Now they're defining industry standards far beyond the scope of a simple desktop computer.

What did it for me was the early days of Napster - when Lars Ulrich came forward and condemned people for downloading music off of that service, when for many years, Metallica had been winking and nodding at live performance recordings, since those would serve to gather more fans for them.

So. .

[Gerald]

A bit like Steve above said, the recording industry has for many years "tricked" people to buy music on CD as an example, they add a great song and the rest are crap, and also high prices, what confidence inspires it?, so these companies have in often obstructed at themselves

[DarkFish]

First of all, the forum rules on piracy specifically mentions software and game piracy, nothing about other forms of piracy (like music piracy). So I assume we can safely discuss this topic and also admit anything we want without getting infractions, which would make things a lot easier. Could a mod please confirm this?

Originally Posted by TarJak

I've always subscribed to the theory that people who access pirated material are not potential customers anyway and would be unwilling to buy the content regardless of the cost.

Originally Posted by jimbuna

IMHO the people who pirate the music only do so because a, it is free and b, they have no intention of paying and wouldn't anyway if that was their sole option.

I don't think so. I think people who would not buy the album anyway would not listen to it as you only listen to music you like.

I don't know about other cultures, but amongst metalheads it's pretty much an obligation to buy albums of bands you like. Not for the music, you can get that everywhere across the interwebz, but to support those bands. In the same way that you buy band merchandise (shirts and stuff) from their official retailers. You can print your own shirt for half the price, but you don't support the bands by it so it's considered really cheap to do so.

A positive thing about piracy is that it brings music to a much greater audience. Without piracy loads of good bands would have never become known. Bands that are already famous will probably not gain much from this, but I think for smaller unknown bands piracy is actually a real blessing.

[NeonSamurai]

Originally Posted by DarkFish

First of all, the forum rules on piracy specifically mentions software and game piracy, nothing about other forms of piracy (like music piracy). So I assume we can safely discuss this topic and also admit anything we want without getting infractions, which would make things a lot easier. Could a mod please confirm this?

I would stay away from any positive affirmations of having personally done things which are illegal in the US (also including stuff like drugs, prostitution, etc). Don't ask don't tell is the policy.

Btw have to say Platapus, your bank robber thing is a poor strawman argument.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

Btw have to say Platapus, your bank robber thing is a poor strawman argument.

It was only meant to amuse. I think any discussion on why an illegal activitiy is ok is silly.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by DarkFish

First of all, the forum rules on piracy specifically mentions software and game piracy, nothing about other forms of piracy (like music piracy). So I assume we can safely discuss this topic and also admit anything we want without getting infractions, which would make things a lot easier. Could a mod please confirm this?
I don't think so. I think people who would not buy the album anyway would not listen to it as you only listen to music you like.

Don't worry about infractions they dont hurt, I was expecting electic shocks or something. But nothing. Punishment today is too PC.

Who needs to pirate music when you have youtube, you not only get the music for free but even a video on your favourite band performing!

[Sailor Steve]

I grew up in the vinyl album era, and am a dedicated completist. If I like somebody I have to have everything they did, good and bad. Since I discovered a couple of quality pay-for-download sites I have been collecting all the stuff I've always loved but could never afford, all the stuff I thought I might like to have someday, and stuff I'd never dreamed of owning but now do.

It's scary.