Does File-sharing Hurt the Music Biz?
Though the methodology is complex, the results are straightforward: some US music consumers “could have decreased their CD purchases (prior to 2004) by about 13 percent due to Internet file sharing.”
The scholarly consensus is not unanimous, however. Michel notes that Oberholzer and Strumpf (2004) found no correlation between file-sharing and P2P use in 2002, and a more recent paper by a Harvard student found that file-sharing benefited more obscure artists.
So, if you download music from via p2p you are a thief. You are a thief if you rip music from a cd that you borrowed from a friend, or that you bought yourself. You’re a potential thief if you buy a cd and attempt to play it on your windows pc, and you require a rootkit to be installed for continued surveillance. Essentially, you are a thief if you don’t continually give money to big record companies. This is doubly true if you use the Internet to find more obscure, independent artists to support, rather than the popular talentless corporate spawns you’re told to like. In fact, most indepentent artists’ albums weren’t even included in the study, given that they don’t show up on sales statistics.
finding accurate correlations between file-sharing and loss of revenue for the music industry is tremendously difficult
That’s because the whole thing is bullshit. People made bootleg tapes back before peer to peer was even invented. The recording industry is killing itself, it doesn’t need any help from p2p networks. Record companies are producing crappy music, and we don’t want to waste our money buying it.
They’re just bitching because they aren’t making as much money as they want on their crappy rap “music.”
* unknowable goes off to download music via bittorrent.
I think file sharing is a good thing and a bad thing. It needs to exist(because it’s awesome and I need my strange music to live), at the same time the artist does need to eat.
The solution I think is the music industry needs to re-evaluate what it’s been doing.
itunes is a good example.
P2P networks are a technological phenomenon that allow any digital content to be shared worldwide…….. What a fantastic idea!!!!!! A global digital community sharing information and opinion can only be a good thing. The fact that a few abuse this system is neither here nor there. The fact that a few people are killed by idiots in cars does not mean that all cars should be banned does it???
The music industry is scared of P2P as it undermines its powerbase, the industry no longer has exclusive control of how, when, where and who listens to music.
As has been seen in so many spheres throughout time, those that fear loss of their powerbase lash out and react in a manner that generally does more to undermine their position than strengthen it.
Why do people download music from P2P sites? The cost from sites such as iTunes is too much and the DRM makes it difficult to transport the music between the many music systems an individual might have: Car stereo, portable MP3 player, Hifi, Kitchen radio etc.
In order to move forward, the music industry needs to embrace this technology and use it to enhance what they have to offer. While iTunes seems like a good idea, I am not happy to pay their outrageous prices:
The music in low quality MP3, I want a high quality WAV file.
Where is my CD and jewel case? Why do I not see the cost savings associated with not having to produce these items passed onto the consumer?
You are using my bandwidth to deliver your product, where is the recharge mechanism???
If the tracks were a fraction of the cost they are, more people would download more music and happily pay for it. Paying the same for a download of an album as a CD in a shop is a bad idea in my book.
I want my music on CD as I have a stupidly high quality stereo system and MP3 sounds crap. Can I download the music as high quality uncompressed WAV files??? No, so where is the choice?
This is very similar to Disney’s current foray into downloadable films, why would I pay the same price for a low quality download as I would for a high quality DVD?
The music industry has had it too easy for too long and it is good to see competition in this market, albeit from not entirely legal sources.
those bootleg celebrities should be happy we buy their music at all. cuz we can stop anytime we want to. it’s easy to ruin their reputation up! they wanna be picky about how we buy thier music but they are not picky when they tellin us all that bootleg stuff about being normal follow your dreams and all that. they forget were they came from and wanna rub in our face how rich and famouse they are. well ain’t goin for it. i see what’s really goin on. even all the rappers practicaly cum out and say” i could care les about all ya’ll poor people as long as you buy my music”. and the way they disrespect women in their music, and the way the women go for it in the videos just for the money. don’t they know they also put down their moms, sisters, cousins, daughters,friends, and aunts, i guess not bacause they continue to do it. and they can’t say they are not talkin bout all women cuz that’s impossible. they think the only thing women are here for is to lay oin thier backs. just liie dat nigga snoop dog had women on dog chains. that’s why i’m not his fan no more i thre away the cd’s posters everything all because of him. the celebrities ain’t NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!