RIAA suing a little 12 year old girl!!!

In A.D. 2003
War was beginning
Teenager1: What happen?
Teenager2: Somebody set up us the P2P sniffer.
Teenager3: We get e-mail.
Teenager1: What!
Teenager3: Main mail client turn on.
RIAA: How are you gentlemen!
RIAA: All your MP3 are belong to us.
RIAA: You are on the way to bankruptcy.
Teenager1: What you say!
RIAA: You have no chance to pay us make your time.
RIAA: HA HA HA HA ....
Teenager1: Take off every share!
Teenager2: You know what you doing.
Teenager1: Move share.
Teenager1: For great lawsuit.

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by Coredweller
Low and mid-level working musicians are exactly the ones who would benefit the most from a completely revised structure for the recording business.

If I were a relatively unknown musician trying to survive, I would forget all about the traditional "big record deal."  Musicians should focus first on improving their musicianship and songwriting.  Practice heavily with your band and make yourself a strong live-performing act.  Then play every live venue you can.  Build a local fan base.  Create a website for your band and promote the URL on every piece of property your band owns.  Post it everywhere.  Sell your music yourself on your website.  

You\'ll be able to sell the songs at an affordable price, so piracy won\'t be as big a problem for you.  You\'ll be able to reap the ENTIRE sale price of the music, instead of having a worthless record company leeching off of you.  Also, you can establish a much more personal connection with every one of your fans who buys your music.  You can send them direct mailings, and communicate with them through an online forum like this one.  Eventually, by selling other merchandise through your website, I could see a musician doing very very well financially... AND they wouldn\'t have to worry about a record company telling them what kind of music they can and cannot record.

This is a revolutionary time in the music business, and it makes me wish I was more involved.  Some day there\'s going to be a huge breakthrough artist who deliberately shuns all corporate music ownership and distribution.  When that happens, everything you take for granted about the record business will change.  You need to have some vision, just like the founders of the PC and Internet revolutions did.  It\'s a golden opportunity.

It\'s a nice dream.  I\'ll give you that.    But it still has the same problems of current standards.  Why would someone buy these songs legitimately when they can just download them for free off of Kazaa?  Sure you\'ll profit more from the people who DO buy your stuff, as you won\'t have the record company taking 50%+ of your money, but that doesn\'t change the fact that you\'re still working extremely hard to earn a living, and people are STEALING your songs from you, denying the living you have rightfully earned.

A certain amount of stealing will happen, just like a certain amount of stealing happened back when music was distributed on analog media like vinyl records and cassettes.  People copied music with analog equipment for years.

You can\'t stop ALL the stealing, but it can be manageable.  If the artist prices their music reasonably, if they offer other enticements to buy it, such as a downloadable PDF CD booklet, if they offer other products for sale on their website, and if they make a substantial portion of their income from live performance, I believe a musician could do very well.

The only bad news is that musicians can\'t be dumb about business anymore, like the traditional stereotype.  They\'ve got to know what they\'re doing, and have a game plan.  That\'s going to result in some of the social misfits of music failing because they don\'t have any people skills... but change is inevitable.

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by Coredweller
You can\'t stop ALL the stealing, but it can be manageable.  If the artist prices their music reasonably, if they offer other enticements to buy it, such as a downloadable PDF CD booklet, if they offer other products for sale on their website, and if they make a substantial portion of their income from live performance, I believe a musician could do very well.

Right, because a downloadable booklet wouldn\'t be available anywhere else, either?

A lot of bands do do things like merchandising, and most (small, at least) bands do rely on income from their live performance, but obviously it\'s very hard to do.  And even harder if people are stealing your music rather than paying for it.

Although, I think you already know this, and vice versa, so...

I\'m saying that people steal the music because the price is too high, and they have a sense that they are stealing from a multinational corporation, not from a poor musician.  If the price is lower, and the product is supplied directly from the artist, a lot of people are going to find it harder to justify that behavior.

You\'re comparing my hypothetical situation to the way things are now, and saying the level of theft is going to remain exactly the same.  I don\'t think it will.

[videoholic]

:soapbox:

Down people.  Down...

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by Coredweller
I\'m saying that people steal the music because the price is too high, and they have a sense that they are stealing from a multinational corporation, not from a poor musician.  If the price is lower, and the product is supplied directly from the artist, a lot of people are going to find it harder to justify that behavior.

You\'re comparing my hypothetical situation to the way things are now, and saying the level of theft is going to remain exactly the same.  I don\'t think it will.

I don\'t think it would remain exactly the same.

You\'re situation is probably the best we could hope for, but it\'s really nothing but a pipe dream, and even so, it wouldn\'t eliminate the problem completely.

Edit:  And that\'s if it would eliminate the problem at all.  Without the mass exposure that can be given by a major label, bands really might not be able to afford to tour around the country giving their band the exposure it needs to sell more CD\'s.. in your situation.  There\'s many flaws, just as their are with the way things are now.

Yeah, I agree no system is perfect.  My utopian dream probably has lots of unanticipated problems.

BUT things are going to change one way or the other.  There is no avoiding it.  The audio CD standard is near the end of it\'s life cycle.  They stated as much in the current issue of Wired.  What will replace it?  Any physical media the record companies dream up will be hacked one way or the other.  They must realize that.  I know that music and video will be distributed almost entirely electronically in the near future; it\'s just a matter of the logistics.

So, the system we have now is going away whether we like it or not.  The system that replaces it may be better or it may be worse.  I\'m a "glass half full" person, so I\'m hoping for something better.

You\'re in a band, how would you feel if you finally got a record deal, and sold 1000 copies of your CD, and later found out that hundreds/thousands of people were downloading your songs for free and not buying your CD?

I see your point but it doesnt work out that way for me.

If I did get a record deal- My first goal, accomplished, if we sold 1000 CD\'s, my life dream accomplished.

That means that over 1,000,000 know who I am. They know I am the drummer of this band. And know they like my music- I know I am looked up too, and I inspire others. I know my role, money isnt the key- I love playing my drums, and If I can play it for a job, then Im the happiest man on earth.

What about those musicions who can barely scrape enough money together to go on tour? Or to even make an albumn? What about those that work their entire lives to make art, and not sell-out to the consumer.

THey are multi-millionares, I think they can afford to go on tour, and the band isnt paying for the album as far as I know, the RECORD company is because they are signed.


What is the difference between this and the radio? We listen to music on the radio for free, the band doesnt get paid money when they are on the radio. Could someone specify?

[Bobs_Hardware]

Originally posted by Spudz
I see your point but it doesnt work out that way for me.

If I did get a record deal- My first goal, accomplished, if we sold 1000 CD\'s, my life dream accomplished.

That means that over 1,000,000 know who I am. They know I am the drummer of this band. And know they like my music- I know I am looked up too, and I inspire others. I know my role, money isnt the key- I love playing my drums, and If I can play it for a job, then Im the happiest man on earth.

That\'s awfully dignified of you.  So you wouldn\'t mind the fact that after all that hard work, the total of all the money you will see from your CD sales will be no more than approximately $1000 to be split between you and 4 other people?  That\'s sure going to help you go on tour, and cover whatever other expenses you may have.

I\'m sure while you\'re working at McDonalds for the rest of your life, because your band can\'t sell enough CD\'s for you to be able to live off doing something that you love, that you might change your mind...

THey are multi-millionares, I think they can afford to go on tour, and the band isnt paying for the album as far as I know, the RECORD company is because they are signed.

Who said anything about multi-millionaires?

What is the difference between this and the radio? We listen to music on the radio for free, the band doesnt get paid money when they are on the radio. Could someone specify?

There\'s a big difference between listening to the radio, and stealing music.  Perhaps if you recorded the music off the radio, then it would be a closer analogy.

^
and people do that all the time..

First of all, I wont work at a mass production of grease slob burgers, and I would be a drum teacher, or own a drum/music shop as my business. You know the business that would be booming their if the guy that owns it is a rockstar?

I have my life practically planned, and I know what I want to do. If people are listening to my music, and enjoying it- Im happy, Im famous, I\'m known, I am played on the radio, my music videos are watched, and people want my autograph.

Having somebody look up to me, and see me as a role model is more important than money. I grew up, and am growing up without a role model, and I know how hard it is. I dont want others to go through it.

[videoholic]

File sharing has gone up this month.

HAHAHAHAHAHA Too funny..

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/music/2003-09-12-song-swappers-active_x.htm

The recording industry has sort of brought this on themselves. They chose to embrace a technology that leant itself to be copied. They have not worked to please the customers. I mean how many years must we endure high cd prices for a single song?

Now that the internet has come along. Instead of embracing it, and offering songs for download at a reasonable price. They have chose not to until just recently,  and that is a somewhat limited response.

I myself do not download songs. Hell for the most part I live in a music free world. I find it sickining though that a multi-billion dollar enterpise can not protect it\'s assets from Joe Six Pack without running to the goverment. If you use a shared technolgy like cd\'s or dvd\'s you lend yourself out for piracy.

Piracy is a cat and mouse game. It has been and probably will be for a long time. If the music industry wants to fight this. Make it easier to pay for it, rather than go through the time and expense of obtaining a song otherwise.

The redbook audio CD standard was developed at a time in the 1980s when a cutting edge home computer typically had an 8088 cpu.  The idea of storing computer data on a CD, or having a CD-ROM drive on a PC, or having enough CPU horsepower to decode an mp3 file in real time was ludicrous.

You can\'t blame the RIAA for choosing a bad standard.  Besides, any copy protection scheme they came up with would have been hacked anyway... just like the DVD standard was.

Apart from that, you\'re correct.  The record companies have displayed a remarkable myopia when it comes to addressing difficult problems like this one.

Originally posted by Coredweller
The redbook audio CD standard was developed at a time in the 1980s when a cutting edge home computer typically had an 8088 cpu.  The idea of storing computer data on a CD, or having a CD-ROM drive on a PC, or having enough CPU horsepower to decode an mp3 file in real time was ludicrous.

Since this is a gaming board I will call on the mighty power of the gamecube. It uses a hybrid dvd format that makes it extremly difficult to pirate. I could be wrong, but I do not believe it has been broken as of yet.

I may have come across wrong. What I was trying to state is that the music industry should have come out with a medium that was for music and music alone. Who developed the cd format itself? Was the music industry involved, or did they just come up with a sub-standard?

Edit: The encryption of the disk was compromised?? If I were the MPAA or the RIAA I would do my best to get a medium in existence, and fight to keep the medium itself protected. Sort of what Nintendo does. I am not at all familiar with copywrite laws and how it would work on a medium basis. I just can not help, but think if a company puts enough R&D into a product they can keep it moderatly safe without resorting to court.

I would like to see sales figures on DVD\'s since they have started to drop in price again. If a dvd is around 15 bucks or less. I can not help, but think this in of itself would discourage a fair amount of piracy.