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November 06, 2002
Record companies are shooting themselves in the foot
Mentioned here, on Slashdot. BMG has announced that they will stop selling UNcrippled CDs. What makes a CD crippled? The record industries have been experimenting with CDs that are 'un-copyable'. The only results they've had is to create CDs which smart people can still copy, and other people can't play in some stereos. Imagine how you'd feel if you'd just bought the latest Britney Spears CD for $18, stuck it in your car stereo, only to find it won't play. Thats what's happening.Beyond the problem if some CD players not being able to play these special CDs, it brings up questions of ownership. If I buy a CD, shouldn't I be able to copy it to my iPod or computer so I can listen to it somewhere else? In Russia, it is illegal to sell software that can not be backed up. I think thats a good law. CDs get scratched and go bad over time. Its nice to be able to back up my music and re-burn it if it goes bad.
In the end, the record companies are trying to play the victims, but nobodies buying it. People are more than happy to pirate music and screw the industry that they feel is trying to screw them. The music industry pleads that pirating only robs from the artists. This of course is not totally true. The music companies rob the artists. If you sell 250,000 copies of your album, you'll owe your label thousands of dollars because of unfair contracts where the label takes half, but pays for nothing. The labels claim they need $15 per CD, even though it costs less than $.05 per cd to make, because its expensive to pay for artists tours and promotions etc... What they don't tell you is that most labels pay for those things out of the artists cut, not theirs. So the label makes tons of money, spending the artists money, such that the artists ends up owing their label, even if they sell a lot of albums.
Well, screw the big labels. They're getting their just due.
UPDATE 6:40pm > This New Scientist article talks about how all CD copy protection is meaningless anyway.
Posted by wonko at November 6, 2002 06:17 PM
Comments
When EMI gives Mariah Carey $30M to end her contract it's hard to blame the piraters for ruining the recording industry.
It seems to me that money destroys art. From the music industry to movies to children's toys the capitalist premise is make money; go for broadest appeal, go for the lowest common denominator. Sell violence, sell idiocy, sell fear. Sell music that sounds like a colgate commercial.
My thought is, take all the money out and see who still wants to make music (or movies, or children's books). I'll bet the end result is better than what we've got now.
And don't give me that shit about "how would you like it if the source of your livelihood got stolen from you". Everytime an industry automates a new procedure they take the workers and throw them out on their ass and it's up to them to "keep up with the times" and "upgrade their skills".
My statement to the recording industry is: you've been rightsized.
Posted by: spikey at November 21, 2002 10:35 PM
The recording industry has been screwing its artists and consumers alike for decades. I, for one, am glad IT is getting screwed for a change. Music producers are a group of venal slimebags who deserve to be crushed out of existence.
Posted by: Steven Victor at January 28, 2003 10:14 AM
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