RIAA is a joke!

[white knight]

Stealing music...many people bring it into an ethical debate. Me, I don't sweat the details because music should be free to begin with. Only artists like Metallica or Dr. Dre have good enough contracts with their respective labels to make any money of the sell of their albums. (Metallica is actually guilty of copyright infringment because inside the cd liner of "Garage Inc" they talk about sitting around their houses copying music onto blank tapes) Most artists (95% if not higher) make the majority of their money from merchandise sells and from tours. Bottom line is that when you buy a cd at the store you are lining the pockets of hegemon record labels. Money doesn't really have all that much to do with music guys! If its all about the money then it probably isn't the kind of music anyone should listen to anyways.
Lets stop and think here for a second....with millions and millions of users on multiple p2p platforms i theorize that it might take an awefully long time for the RIAA to "get you". The American legal system is already so backed up now, can you imagine how long its going to take the RIAA, using their current tactics, to make an impact on music piracy? I'll give you a hint....you'll probably be dead. New programs are already in the works to hide the identities and ip addresses of those who participate in file sharing. I wonder if it is possible that the think tanks at the RIAA think that by announcing war against file sharers, they will be able to stop piracy. Probably not. I love and use Apple products but i still don't use iTunes music store. Why? you might ask, well its just simply because i don't have to pay. If the artists were getting the money from cd sells it would be a different story. As a musician myself I am painfully aware that while record companies make some things easier, most of the time they just make things harder. Don't let their sobs trick you into paying them money. The artists are making the music, not the record labels. PAY THEM! So i guess the answer to the original question is NO. No i don't think i will stop downloading music. After all, if its good enough for Metallica, its good enough for me

[Quicksilver]

This is an arguable topic but ill give what i believe is right.


It all began when you could record your tracks onto tapes, and consumer stereo players had the ability to record those tapes - it should have been left for PRO's and pro systems only. In that sence i agree music did begin to dig its own grave. There should have been some kind of legal analogue transfer service with record stores at least.


Next it will most probably be illegal to hide ip address identities. The legal system is quite new for internet and is still in development. so if RIAA is smart thay WILL do that. Try and get a drivers licence/passport without any proof/evidence of who you are....or..... telling them you have a home but no address....sounds very dodgy hey..

The reason record companies make money is to promote there artists eg: tv, print, magazine, etc. 1) so that you recognise an artist. 2) you purchase the artists song. kind of like its own economic system.

So how is an artist going to be promoted if nobody knows who they are? Nobody will buy there songs. They start with barly anything and need money right? and even if artists did start a download service them selves it wouldnt work, because it would end up capitalising on one artist and the little guys (other artists) would be having trouble catching up - This is why we need record companies to splash around many flavours of talent in many forms of music types, and to start up those bands/groups/artists to have world wide recognition..

thus i welcome the iTunes music store

Well done Apple, and Thankyou..........

[voice-]

Quicksilver, your praise has one flaw, which you, yourself, pointed out. They use some of the money on making us hear about the artist. Now, you'll probably agree that instead of promoting 5 bands and putting out 5 different CDs, they would make more money on promoting one band, to sell five times as many of that CD.
This, ALSO, makes it very hard for the new/little guys...and it is exactly what they are doing.

[Giaguara]

Well - if no one knew who Shakira or Ricky Martin (or just ANY musician) was, no one would buy their music.

As the cassette recorders exist, RIAA should have ALL the RADIO stations closed. Radios share their music FREE with thousand of listeners they don't know. So you can get your copy of music from the radio to a cassette, or to a cd or dvd or as am mp3 too.

The reasons for shutting down p2p apply to closing radios too. But if you wouldn't listen to your music in the radio, once more you didn't know who you want to buy.

White Knight - how do you suggest to pay directly to the artist? Not all artists make concerts (assuming they get a higher percentage of concert income than of record sale).

Interesting legislations btw - in Italy they rose the taxes on cds, dvds, hard drives (thus computers) earlier this year. Why? The logic behnd it: they think EVERYBODY uses cds, dvds and their hard drives to store illegal mp3s, warez (and porn?). Thus you ae considered guilty as default. At least that makes it so much easier to choose what to bring as souvenirs (cds, blank dvds etc).

The money rosen with that piracy-cd tax - i wonder how they are going to use it? that for sure does not go to the artist as no one knows who the artist is. My favorite artist for sure will not get any of it - he died in the 1990s.

As porn is one of the other industries that are harmed (???) by p2p things - why hasn't the porn business started similar cases against the p2ps claiming that people don't anymore buy as much porn as they did before the rise of p2p?

Enough polemics of me today ... don't take the above text as straight opinions - i'm just trying to undo the logic riaa uses. Then - what if everyone would even forget their radios and just buy a guitar or a piano or a marranzanu and start to play music for the pleasure of it? You don't have to OWN a piece of note or paper or cd to play that with your guitar.

[blastic]

they are just greedy, i though music was about speaking your mind and getting a point across, not making money. And if if someone is not going to buy your music, wouldn't you want the exposure of allowing to get it for free?

[Ripcord]

Originally posted by blastic
i though music was about speaking your mind and getting a point across, not making money.

Yes. When the Boston Pops performed the Jurrasic Park theme song the other day, they were really trying to "say" something

[karavite]

I'll say my 2 cents here - if you own high quality audio equipment (hint - not anything from Best Buy) you will instantly notice that MP3s are really quite lousy. There is no comparison to a well recorded CD (and even CDs come up short to LPs, but let's not go there now). I have about 8 grand into my audio equipment and I know I am nuts (though there are some who spend far far more), but there is really good audio equipment out there for less. I enjoy purchasing new and used CDs and LPs for music first and for the sound quality too.

Musicans should make money for their work, just like authors of books should make money for their work, but prices are absurd. 20 bucks for a CD - and with some old jazz reissues and other music, the artist is DEAD. The recording industry is screweing it all up themselves. They failed to be creative (like so many of their "artists") in finding ways to use new technology. They could be making plenty of fast nickels when they are stuck on trying to make slow dimes. Still, I hate to say it, but if there was a better high res format than MP3, I would find it hard not to be downloading all day! :-)

[serpicolugnut]

Me, I don't sweat the details because music should be free to begin with.

You really think that? Do you think that someone else is entitled to whatever artistic output you put forth and offer no compensation in return? Do you understand what Capitalism is?

Musicians deserve to get paid for their works. The problem is the record companies are outdated middlemen who needlessly rape the profits from album sales, and the artist usually gets screwed. Hopefully, the day will come soon, when artists can deal directly with Apple and the other digital delivery services, and bypass the greedy, useless record making machine.