• About

LIVEdigitally

Only Three Times?

Posted on June 15, 2005 by feeling entropy

‘The music industry’. Enter that string of words into my brain’s thesaurus and I’d spit out: evil, greedy, selfish, money hoarding animals that have made me suffer therefore now it’s their turn.

I fantasized about a driver’s license in 1994, a year before I turned 16, so I would be able to drive to the different Warehouse Music stores in order to browse through the used CD sections. Paying $17.99 for a new CD was near impossible living off of $20.00 per week for lunch and allowance, used CDs were half the price but availability was issue.

The fact that those CDs I poured my high school savings into contained only 2-3 enjoyable tracks bundled in between ‘filler’ songs, often left me with a sour taste in my mouth. The late 90’s was ‘The Music Industry’s’ hay day, funded by suckers such as yours truly. Come to think of it, from the dawn of recorded audio until Napster, was the Music Industry’s hay day.

P2P (peer to peer) file-sharing, pioneered by Napster and followed by a slew of others such as Morphious, Limewire, WinMx, Kazaa, BearShare, etc…, put up a huge middle finger to $17.99 CDs and the record labels who took advantage of me. I downloaded songs day and night, skipping class to find a song that I had only heard once was not unheard of. I discovered more music in the first month of my Napster usage than I had in a year of listening to the radio, TV, and word of mouth combined. The Internet was now worth more than email and pornography (porn was the most searched item on the net before Napster)

P2P file sharing was legal until the Music Industry cried and cried in courtrooms. They had the money and lawyers to get their way. Napster was then shut down and sued into oblivion.

CD burners were around before this P2P phenomenon, and no record executive had a problem with it. The ability for computer users to copy a CD didn’t scare these $17.99 demanding savages, they were still pulling in plenty of cash.

The Evil [Music] Industry has suffered in CD sales over the years. Technology has allowed me to make a fool of those who once made a fool of me. And now the Music Industry is making a fool of themselves all on their own.

The brilliant decision to implement SunnComm’s technology in new CDs is supposedly the new path record companies are going to take. A CD with SunnComm technology restricts the number of times the CD can be burned to only three times. Research by NPD Group reports that music fans acquired twice as much music via burned CDs than by internet file sharing. I refuse to believe such, unless however, the survey was taken in 1996.

CD sales are on the decline. Economics 101: Chapter 1, Page 1, when sales are on the decline something is wrong, and you need to offer a better product or service or simply lower the price. “Here you have a product with declining sales, and for the same price you want to decrease the potential value of it,” said analyst Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media. Phil hits the nail on the head here, he is thinking more like a consumer and less like an executive.

I still like CDs, almost everything electrical that I own can play CDs, and I wouldn’t mind purchasing a CD from time to time. Yet with prices of $15.99 I just don’t see that happening anytime in the near future. If I were head of EMI or BMG I’d do something crazy, and sell all CDs for $4.99.

Let’s draw out an example for fun. I completely loved the new Bloc Party CD, and yet I was still pained by spending $15+ dollars for it. I then copied the CD for approximately 10 people who I knew would enjoy the Brit Rock band. All ten of the friends loved Bloc Party’s CD, yet nobody went out and purchased it. The math: One CD sale, 11 satisfied listeners, 15+ dollars for the Music Industry. Had this Album only cost $4.99 I would have purchased it, along with ½ of the friends I introduced to the band. This would have chalked up six sales for the CD totaling $30.00+ for the record industry. Finally, if the Bloc Party CD had SunnComm technology, I would have resented the band for allowing themselves to be part of such nonsense, then illegally download the CD and distributed it to the same 10 friends. The math: record sales = $0.00, dollars for the music industry = $0.00, people with the Bloc Party CD = 11.

The problem with this is that I like Bloc Party, and want them to continue producing music. Pirating their music doesn’t put money in their tip jar, possibly leading them to an early extinction. That isn’t my goal here.

Musicians do have many different means to pull in revenue these days, opposed to 7-8 years ago. The OC, (which I don’t watch, I swear) has featured music by Bloc Party, I don’t recall Growing Pains, Family Matters, or Saved By The Bell featuring any new music in their episodes.

Commercials, video games, movies, concerts, merchandise, ringtones, and a slew of other avenues of making money are now available to artists. Why then are CD prices still where they were before these bonus ways of making bread came about?

I realize that I’m very one sided on this issue, and feel I have good reason to be. The Music Industry used to laugh in the face of Karma, and is now feeling the burn from her inevitable table turning ability. I don’t mind paying for a quality product or service, but I do mind getting ripped off.

The restriction of 3 burns per CD will hopefully bring these music giants to a realization that they are going about business all wrong. I write this article not as a writer, but as a music consumer. I feel that these feelings reflect feelings of most consumers in the 18-34 year old demographic. Change here is necessary, but I’m not holding my breath.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Reddit

Related

Posted in General, That's Janky | 1 Comment
« How Will My Home Look in the Future?
3G, Do You? WiFi, Do You? »

One thought on “Only Three Times?”

  1. Chuck says:
    June 18, 2005 at 11:16 am

    All of your frustrations are valid, and your characterizations of the industry as being arrogant and out of touch are completely valid. However, this doesn’t make music theft OK. Can you get away with it? Of course. But that doesn’t make it right. If the music produced by the labels is as worthless as you say, then don’t steal it. If it has value, then pay for it…even just a track at a time. Better yet, embrace indie musicians who do it for the love of the music instead of the fame and fortune, and support them with your money. There’s nobody to be mad at with an equation like that…and you’re out of justifications for your theft. 😉

    Reply

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

Recent Posts

  • Back on the wagon/horse?
  • 11 Tips for Startups Pitching Big Companies
  • CES 2016: A New Role
  • Everything I Learned (So Far) Working For a Huge Company
  • And I’m Back…

Archives

Pages

  • About

Archives

  • January 2019
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005
  • June 2005
  • May 2005
  • April 2005
  • March 2005
  • February 2005
  • January 2005
  • December 2004
  • November 2004
  • October 2004
  • September 2004

Categories

  • Convergence (81)
  • Gadgets (144)
  • Gaming (19)
  • General (999)
  • Guides (35)
  • LD Approved (72)
  • Marketing (23)
  • Mobile Technology (111)
  • Networking (22)
  • No/Low-tech (64)
  • Product Announcements (85)
  • Product Reviews (109)
  • That's Janky (93)
  • Travel (29)
  • Video/Music/Media (115)
  • Web/Internet (103)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© LIVEdigitally
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.