Monday, September 21, 2009

The music industry eats itself

Hey, y'know how album sales are down? It's because of all that illegal downloading. It's got nothing to do with the way music industry runs its own business.

So run along now, boys and girls, and fork out $18 for the latest Hannah Montana CD. Whatever you do, don't read articles like this:

Why the Music Industry Sucks (Part XLVII)

2 comments:

Jannie Funster said...

Something I did not fully understand was Lyle Lovett saying on some talk show when asked what he thought about illegal down-loading, "Well, I guess whereever people are seeking music, that's got to be a good thing." (I'm paraphrasing his words a bit, going from memory on that.)

I can understand an artist giving some freebies yes, but for people not to pay for ANY music AT ALL is NOT RIGHT in my opinion. Musicians work hard and put a lot of time and money into their product. They should be paid.

I do think iTunes and people buying singles they like rather than whole albums is okay, we can probably expect that as the future m.o. but PAY for the songs, people.

cinderkeys said...

If there's music you'd be willing to pay for, but you download it all for free just 'cause you can, that's a problem. I agree.

A lot of people download music as a kind of try-before-you-buy, though. Maybe after downloading 20 songs based on recommendations, someone buys the two they actually like. The artists who recorded the other 18 tracks don't really lose anything, because the person wouldn't have bought their music anyway.

In the case of the article I linked to, the site made certain songs available for free download because the record company selling the music asked them to. The record company itself recognized the value of giving it away for free as a promotional tool. Then the same record company told the site to cease and desist, because ... gasp! ... Illegal downloading!

Whatever you think about free downloads, that's messed up. :)