Why is music piracy so bad?

[Macca371]

Ok, I promise I don't intend to get the site into legal trouble here... but I was wondering - why is music piracy so bad?

Even with the sales they are still getting, the record companies and the musicians are still filthy rich and they are getting more money than necessary.

Plus, I believe the price of music are kinda these days is kinda ridiculous.

I dunno why but I'm expecting a lot of heavy disagreement on this subject.Take it easy lol

[kronas]

companies loose money thats why, if people can obtain what they want for free they are highly unlikely to buy the CD so artists and record labels need to combat everyone leaning and using illicit means of gaining content.

[Russ B]

I don't think the notion of "Music is too expensive anyway" is valid in this case as I think the Clio 172 is a bit pricey but I'm not going to nip out for a bit of TWOCing at my local Renault dealer...

[Damien]

music was too pricy and you had to buy albums for one song until itunes now i download legallly

[Julian]

Simple answer imo refers to your 3rd point....

Plus, I believe the price of music are kinda these days is kinda ridiculous

Get the recoord companies to reduce the price of the retail article and maybe there would be no need for the piracy.

Much better to have an original recording in your library than a ripped copy.

[kronas]

actually downloading helps in some circumstances, i downloaded some songs and albums. then went out bought the CD's or ordered off the net.

cauterize being a fine example.

record compaines are reduing prices, only because CD's could be on the way out, now that legitimate downloading is catching on.

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I don't think the notion of "Music is too expensive anyway" is valid in this case as I think the Clio 172 is a bit pricey but I'm not going to nip out for a bit of TWOCing at my local Renault dealer...

The difference is that music is information, and information is not a tangible thing but something that can endlessly be copied and redistirbuted with minimal cost and without damage to the original. Whereas something like a car exists on it's own and cannot be endlessly duplicated without bringing in extra physical constructs.

Now, I do think music and film piracy is wrong. People have worked hard to create the music and deserve to be compensated for that. But on the other hand, the Music industry is also wrong. With the growth of the internet, there is a whole new paradigm in the exchange of information that allows a much greater freedom. Sadly, the music industry and other industries are trying hard to control access to this freedom and restrict people to their old business models. They want to control what you see and hear, because they can charge you for that. With the free exchange of information, the artists that they rely upon are able to exist without them and that scares them.

To summarise, the music and film industries should stop flogging the dying horse and embrace the new world order

Edit: Personally, I'd much rather have a digital copy of an album that I can transfer around at will than a CD that takes up room and wastes packaging.

[ian@huth]

Theft is theft, no matter how you look at it and can never be justified.

I wonder how many people that complain about the cost of music know how much each link in the chain of producing and selling it makes. Yes, prices could come down and then make some parts of the chain unprofitable resulting in less choice of where you could buy it. The less choice there is, the less competition there is, and the more chance that those left control the pricing.

[nffc]

MP3s etc are inferior anyway.

No, CDs are about the right price. It's not just the artists who probably only get 1/15 of the price, the pressing may only cost about 50p but that's only due to the size of the run. Also rights, studio time, equipment hire etc all have to be done- that's even before it's prepared for the shelf when retailers, the label, distributors etc all have to have their expenses met.

Piracy will kill music- if a £'000 or £'000,000 run was made and only one copy was sold, and put on the internet, then the label would lose a phenomenal amount of money and would probably go bankrupt. In fact a lot of the major labels eg EMI, Warner are currently facing financial difficulties and having to cut their roster as a result.

And in any case- I'd rather have the original CD not a product of a lossy compression with the case, booklet etc.

[Maggy J]

Um it's not the music companies I care about it's the artists themselves.They deserve some reward for their work do they not? If music piracy takes place they get nothing for the lyrics they write and the music they compose and the performance they do for the song.Same goes for films.Those who make the product really deserve their royalties.Cutting them out of the loop ISN'T fair or just.

However not much of the sums charged for the products gets to the artists themselves.This is where I get annoyed when the middlemen take more than is truly fair and over inflate the costs according to how much profit they can make in individual countries.Just like the fecking car manufacturers

Originally Posted by Julian

Simple answer imo refers to your 3rd point....



Get the recoord companies to reduce the price of the retail article and maybe there would be no need for the piracy.

Much better to have an original recording in your library than a ripped copy.

Do you really think that downloading would stop happening? HMV recently had a massive sale (some really good priced albums in there), do you think the amount of downloads went down?

I do download music, but i am fully aware that what i am doing is stealing. I do not try and justify it by saying that it is too expensive

[Earl of Bronze]

To be completely honest (for a change ), up until the last 5 years or so, and the file sharing explosing on the internat, record companies raped the record buying public.

Cd's came out at about £20 each, about 15 or so years ago. And they stayed at about that price for 10 years or so. Didnt matter that the cost of cd production was reduced, that just ment the industry made a bigger margin. Now a large portion of the music is 'manufactured, tacky pap' and the 'artists' are paid a wage while the record companies make even more money.

It's only with the ammount of music being shared on 'tinternet' that is driving down the price of Cd's in shops.

So in my opinion, feck'em. They had a lisence to print money, and now the public is switchin off and droppin out.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

To be completely honest (for a change ), up until the last 5 years or so, and the file sharing explosing on the internat, record companies raped the record buying public.

Cd's came out at about £20 each, about 15 or so years ago. And they stayed at about that price for 10 years or so. Didnt matter that the cost of cd production was reduced, that just ment the industry made a bigger margin. Now a large portion of the music is 'manufactured, tacky pap' and the 'artists' are paid a wage while the record companies make even more money.

It's only with the ammount of music being shared on 'tinternet' that is driving down the price of Cd's in shops.

So in my opinion, feck'em. They had a lisence to print money, and now the public is switchin off and droppin out.

And the musicians themselves? where do you stand on them?Don't they deserve to make money?A living?If folk don't get renumeration for their efforts than they will give up.Then who will make the music?

[TigaSefi]

Also most of the dross that comes out these days, I wanna check that the albums are worth getting. So when I see Damien Rice 0 Album on sale for less than £9 it'll be brought. www.cdwow.com does excellent prices for single cd's and I recommend them.

[ian@huth]

When you look at the price of music it is the retailer that probably takes the biggest slice of the retail price. For instance with computer software we used to buy games that retailed at £50 for just under £30. That £20 appears to be a lot of profit but you had to sell a hell of a lot to pay rent and rates for your premises and staff wages. If you ordered too many of a product you were stuck with them and had to sell them off at below cost price to get some money back. If you didn't order enough you lost a fortune in possible sales. When you see sales figures for music and computer software you see the number of copies that the manufacturer has sold which may be many times the number that are actually sold retail at full price.