Well, if you're talking about pop stars and some athletes, then the 'those guys have millions' statement is true, mainly because they're involved in like, a million endorsement deals.
I think the piracy episode of South Park sums it up rather well... "See her? That's Britney Spears. Downloading has hurt her sales. She used to own a Gulfstream IV private jet, but now she has to settle for a Gulfstream III" P. Diddy has a Gulfstream...nice plane. Funkmaster Flex did a bit on it once... Allow downloading, America, or everyone can move to Canada....
i think its fair enough if you pay a monthly prize and download whatever you want. but then again nobodys gonna do that if you can download for free. but it should be legal anyway.
i think that it should be legal, i dont really consider it theft, music is played on radio and television it is just as easy to tape it. i dont download albums i would rather go and buy the cd but i download single songs because in my opinion buying them from shops is theft of my money.
Legalize Downloading!!! Imagine a world where people can't download music for free, and CD's cost about 20€ or $, and think of thousands yong people who can't afford buying albums everytime they wanna listen to something knew, like me for example, I only buy a new album when I got enough money, that happens about once a mounth. But I can't listen to only one CD during a whole next mounth ! What should I do? It reminds me the age of Bach or Bethoven ,when music was only accesible to some privileged people...
I’m not going to lie: I download music, and most of you know how much I download. If I hear about a band, I’ll download a song or two to see if I like them, and then I’ll download an album by them. If I like the album, I’ll download other work by them to see if it’s just as good. Then, if I like the album, I’ll buy the CD whenever I have extra money. Granted, I don’t buy CDs all the time, but I do buy a fair amount of them and I always do it to support the bands I listen to. I definitely feel that downloading should be legal. My dad regularly gets CD catalogues from companies like BMG and Columbia House Music, and the prices in those books are ridiculous. I don’t know anyone who is going to pay $20 or more for one single CD. I could see a CD costing $20 or more if it contained a bonus DVD, or even another CD. But $20 or more for one single CD is ridiculous. That’s why people download so many of their CDs, but the RIAA and the government are too blind to see that. If I had my way, I’d price CDs the fairest way I know how: 50 cents per song. That’s a dollar for every two songs on a CD. If you have twelve songs on a CD, that’s going to be $6 for a CD. Now, that may be a little cheap for most artists and labels, but not everyone can afford to go out there and buy CDs that are so outrageously priced. Hell, even CDs priced at a dollar per song is very fair. That’s $12 for a CD with twelve songs on it. That is not a bad price at all. In the catalogues I mentioned above, I frequently find that the companies price CDs the same all throughout the book, no matter when they were released. That isn’t fair at all. A CD that came out in 1997 should not cost the same as a CD that came out in 2002. Another way I’d make CD pricing fair is by knocking a dollar off the price every year (or more, it would depend on how many tracks are on the CD). Recently, I purchased three CDs from Kmart and the price was only $40. Only $40. That isn’t bad at all. That’s roughly $13 per CD. Why can’t more CDs be priced this way? If I go into a store with $100, I want to be able to purchase at least eight CDs. At $12 a CD, I would be able to purchase eight CDs if I went into a store with $100. To me, that’s very reasonable, and a lot better than only being able to get five CDs for $100. So, yeah, I think that downloading should be legal: But only to a certain extent, like previewing music before you go out and buy it.
I only download songs i'm not gonna buy anyway, or for sampling reasons. I never downlaod full albums, just a couple of singles etc. to know the bands, and if i like them i get the CD. So that's beneficial for the company. That's how i got to know SOulfly =P
I download music quite a bit but I only download stuff asa taster. I couldn't download music for more than that- i.e. Full albums because my internet connection is crap. I still think it should be made legal and free because albums are so expensive that many people can't afford to buy them everytime they hear a song they like. Although whether its legal or not - it would be near impossible for them to stop it all together because it would be impossible for them to arrest every single person in the world who had ever downloaded a song or whatever.
No matter what the RIAA does to stop piracy, dedicated people will always find a way around it. No plan is foolproof. As far as pricing for CDs goes, think of how much it costs to produce that CD. Next to nothing. The disc itself is made in a huge rapid-manufacturing device (dunno what the exact terminology is) that puts out CDs at a fast rate, therefore I'll bet the disc only costs 50 cents in materials and energy to make and burn. Add in costs of recording the tracks, editing the tracks, etc..., cover art, cases, etc... and you're up to proably only 6 or 7 bucks per disc to break even with the sales that a major band like LP will make. The rest is profit...14 bucks of profit is ridiculous...
Exactly. Once I see a lot of recommendations for a band, I'll go and download 3 or 4 songs from them right away. And if they're good, I'll definately go buy their CD if I can cough up the money. I seriously doubt someone who have never heard a song by a band before would take the risk of buying a $15 overpriced disc. It's been brought up before, and I'm sure most of you would agree that downloading helps publicize a band more than it hurts them. Therefore, Canada kicks our ass again by legalizing downloading.
It should be legal. Not for a price, I don't want to pay for a single MP3. That's insane. Yes, millionaire artists need more money. The music industry is suffering so much huh? That's why a new millionaire is made practically everyday in the music business? what the #### is the RIAA thinking? Greed is a disease, and it looks like it's consuming those who control our fates, and rights. I'm sorry, I'm not going to pay $15 for a goddamn CD. That's insane. I payed $20 for St. Anger. Do you THINK I enjoyed spending that much on a shite CD?! NO. If the ####### RIAA wouldn't have done what they did with P2P, I would have been able to download a few songs during that time period. RIAA is making a huge mistake in sueing downloaders. YOU'RE SUEING THE MUSIC FANS. Yeah, once they get out of jail, they'll be dying to pay $15 for CD with 15 songs, and 6 of them are decent. Riiiight. They're trying to pressure us into giving them more money. Personally, I'm sorry, I'm not going to let some greedy mongols control what I do. P2P programs will never die. Sorry RIAA. You're fighting a war you're going to lose. You may win the battle, but you sure as hell won't win the war. [/rant]
I use iTunes .. its a better product then any P2P app. So im happy to pay 79p per track (7.99 per album).
^what i hate about paying for d/ls is you don't get the case, the lyrics, etc which is as much a part of a cd than the cd itself
I think it should be... mainly because that is the only way I actually get to hear music. Most of the bands I listen to are never seen on TV here and most of the albums I want aren't sold here and it costs around $40 a cd to get it over the net. I know that a lot of other people have that problem too. And another thing.... I wanted to say that too.
i agree with downloading in a way, because i like to download a few songs to try bands out, because you cant always find them on the web. but ill never download a full album, if i like an album ill go and buy it. also, i cant stand copied cds so i never copy them if i can help it. well, i dont copy them cos my cd writer doesnt work
I agree with downloading. However...I am an absolute perfectionist when it comes to sound quality and to me the CD's sound far better than some mp3s do. So if I can justify buying the CD (ie. I like 3 or more tracks) then I will do if I can, simply because I want to hear the music in it's best possible form. Plus, I like reading some of the daft little thank yous and production credits that sometimes creep in. Or for some of the special things that bands put into the booklets and packaging. Then of course a lot of the time theres a DVD or videos with it, that's kinda cool. I guess you could say that I agree with downloading in moderation. Like if you hear some cool music on a commercial, then download the song. It'd be pointless to buy a CD for that reason. My other reason is that the price of CD's are sometimes ridiculously high. Thankfully over here there are some places where CD prices are going down. A few years ago the price of most CD's was about £17 ($31), but now if you know where to look some albums cost from £5 and up.
Me too. However, downloading is almost necessary to "preview" music and determine whether to buy CDs.
The price of CD's is outragous, and frankly it's a risk to buy one. They usually only put a song or two from a CD out on radio, and there is a distinct chance that you won't even like the rest of the songs on the CD. Furthermore, it's been proven that the record industry is only losing fractions of cents of profit because people download, THEN buy. It's poinltess to go after music downloaders.