Not exactly news other than it’s one more reason why the RIAA seems to be an organization whose thinking stopped during the wax cylinder era with their needle skipping in one groove.
The Dutch study by the University of Amsterdam reported that it couldn’t find any proof that filesharers were responsible for a drop in music sales at big content providers. In fact, the research by Professor Nico van Eijk suggested that P2P users were actually some of the music industry’s best customers.
“Only part of the decline in music sales can be attributed to file sharing. Despite the losses for the music industry, the increased accessibility of culture renders the overall welfare effects of file sharing robustly positive,” said van Eijk.
He said the proliferation of digital technology means that music providers “have to explore new models to sustain their business.”
[...]
“When it comes to attending concerts, and expenses on DVDs and games, file sharers are the industry’s largest customers,” the study reported.So that leaves the question, why is the music industry apparently working so hard to alienate these same people?
More information all intelligent people already knew. How long until the RIAA realise what is so obvious to everybody else?
Could the decline be caused by a lack of good content? I look at my downloaded content (the stuff I buy from Amazon!) and half of it is music I’ve owned before, in LP or tape form, and of the half that’s left, stuff I *could* have owned before. So only 25% is material less than 10 years old.
In any case, I haven’t bothered to visit a record store in years now. Of all the data that belongs in the cloud, music, movies and books on tape are the obvious choices, yet are the most resisted by content management types. C’mon, isn’t Jack Volenti dead now? Sheesh.
With all that’s going on, it’s hard to be concerned for these clowns. Clearly the ‘winners’ in the world, aren’t concerned with breaking the rules, so why should I be?
#2 Commodore said, “In any case, I haven’t bothered to visit a record store in years now.”
Where are these record stores of which you speak? I don’t mean a place where they sell vinyl, I mean a CD store. Walmart and Best Buy do not count.
Last time I bought a CD was in a bar from the musician that played the venue. I never listened to the CD. I put it on my iPod and listened to the MP3 there. I don’t buy music online. I buy it in the form of CD. I just haven’t in quite a while. I don’t torrent songs either.
I blame people like John and Leo for the decline of the CD. They put out such good iPod content for free like TWiT and Cranky Geeks, that I have no time for music. Also Audible. You know you can get two audiobooks a month for a reasonable amount. That is enough audio to never bother to listen to another music MP3. And then there are people like Scott Sigler and Mur Lafferty who podcast their books for free. (I usually buy a hardcover book from them later.) I have no need to buy a CD or even steal music online.
Last Line from OP: “So that leaves the question, why is the music industry apparently working so hard to alienate these same people?” /// The evidence before that question is that those folks are musics “best customers.” So–whats the problem? The RIAA is doing its “assigned” job. Maybe the music industry needs “a new model” ((that doesn’t include the music industry)) but right now they can have their cake and eat it too.
I buy music from independent artists only. Well not as much anymore because I only buy stuff when I meet the artist in person.
#1 The RIAA sees the writing on the wall like everyone else but you can appreciate they want to slow down that transition as much as possible.
In similar ways, you know the print media and soon the TV industry are grappling with how to monetize the unstoppable transition to the internet within their respective industries.
Slowing it down is just one of several strategies but not the only one.
@Benjamin
>I never listened to the CD. I put it on my iPod and listened to
>the MP3 there.
Isn’t that the sort of illegal behavior that funds terrorism ?
I’m pretty sure thats what the RIAA ad said.
Tyler Durden says, “They’re polishing brass on the Titanic”. Quoted out of context maybe, but I thing it pretty much sums up the futility of the music, movie, newspaper and television industries attempts to head butt an iceberg.
If someone mentions an artist I don’t know I’ll download some songs from them and if I like them I’ll buy the CD if not the files get deleted. I am not going to spend the money on a CD just to find out I don’t like the music.
“So that leaves the question, why is the music industry apparently working so hard to alienate these same people?”
So that the organisation which has never written a note of music can disproportionally profit – that’s why.
Also. Why do governments spend so many tax dollars chasing downloaders? What’s in it for the government? More appropriately, do the fines returned by the courts to the government make chasing avoiders profitable? I’ve no idea, anyone enlighten me on this.
Also.
Anybody know
(a) How much they (RIAA) made last year
(b) What the CEO of the RIAA gets paid.
Just trying to get a perspective on this.
Like the man said, cui bono (or que Bono if you prefer) from Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla
I won’t buy crap.
Q. So that leaves the question, why is the music industry apparently working so hard to alienate these same people?
A. Because the music industry is brazen and blatant in their goal of extracting every cent possible from anyone who wants to hear music. If they could institute a pay-to-play system for it, they would.
“…the RIAA seems to be an organization whose thinking stopped during the wax cylinder era with their needle skipping in one groove.”
Do wax cylinders skip grooves? I think not. The needle is propelled by a screw mechanism, not tracked by the spiral as on a record surface.
Inadvertent levitation here will not be tolerable.
Item Two:
Punishing your best customer base is a human trait that is as old as, and as dumb as people. This gives the RIAA the ability to pull out the old excuse, “We’re just human.”
But you would think that the Best Reason to consider organizations and corporations to be the Freedom Of Speech equivalent of citizens is that they are driven by a balanced consensus of motives, weighed thinking and deliberation ABOVE the limited BS of “just human” operations. Simply because they would have internal checks and balances in their reasoning processes.
If the common “average Joe” is all you get when you make a brand new person with no more improved thinking than via the irrational dumb fucking way (literally), it’s a Real Good argument to NOT let organizations have Freedom Of Speech (and monetary political influence, for instance).
New motto:
“RIAA. Shooting ourselves and customers in the foot since Day One.”
Ironically the RIAA is being sued by Metalica!
It seems that the fines paid by file sharers to the RIAA don’t cover the salary of the CEO, lawyers and lobbyists.
It’s even worse in the frozen north.
There is a copyright levy on blank CDs and tapes to pay for piracy – because people who download music all write it in .WAV to flat bits of plastic!
The money from this tax goes to the music publishers.
So small local bands that make their own CDs to sell have to pay $0.29/CD to support Celine Dion’s record label.
first off, Buzz, thanks for correcting uncle dave’s mistake regarding cylinder recordings. I was gonna hop on that but you beat me to it.
Benjamin, I’ve got news for you. If the store doesn’t sells CDs, but no LPs, it isn’t a record store. Not that either are easy to come by these days, but while CDs are recordings, they ain’t “rekkeds”.
Finally, as to the main story, WELL DUH!
Duh. I’ve “borrowed” lots of music off sites, but to be honest, it was music I either ALREADY bought (on cassette or LP) and didn’t want to “rebuy” or mostly stuff I kinda was interested in but would have NEVER bought. I was NEVER going to buy that CD of odd 90′s dance music. Ever. You didn’t lose a sale to me. Sure I copied it off the net, but I wasn’t going to buy it. I’d take it for free, but never for $20.
The groups I like, I DO support and buy their stuff (from iTunes or in stores).
No s**t.
No, I bought the CD and then transferred it to my own iPod for my own use. Nobody, even people who buy CDs, listen to music on a CD player. Everyone uses iPods.
Nobody said, on May 5th, 2010 at 6:30 am
“@Benjamin
>I never listened to the CD. I put it on my iPod and listened to >the MP3 there.
Isn’t that the sort of illegal behavior that funds terrorism ?
I’m pretty sure thats what the RIAA ad said.”
I think the issue the RIAA has with downloaders is that they (the downloaders) don’t buy the utter drek the RIAA wants them to, but instead purchases mainly the good stuff that the RIAA would prefer didn’t exist because they and their members can’t extort as much cash for it.
Seriously, has anyone ever sat down and actually listened to most modern stuff instead of just having it play in the background? Its utter rubbish, and doesn’t hold a candle to anything made a decade ago. Of course its only the modern crap that can be sold at the price level the industry wants, and so thats what they push, and push HARD. Anyone who won’t be sold that is obviously an evil terrorist/gay/atheist/pedo-priest and a pirate obviously (I think I covered everything).