“Please don’t list a litany of things that you didn’t like about their pricing, marketing, distribution method as why it is ok to steal music (…) This essay is one big justification of file sharing”

I need you to acknowledge that I *never* said it was okay to steal anything or to infringe on copyright. There are laws making those activities illegal, and I fully respect that. By assuming otherwise, you are repeatedly calling me a thief, or at least an instigator of crime. My article is not justifying anything, and you have some nerve to say that it does. It has to do with the *causes* of the recent decline in music revenues, since there are a lot of misconceptions that need clearing up. Including more than a few in your comment:

As to the major labels allowing streaming sources due to pressure? That’s completely false. The labels have NEVER changed their practices until the business model could be PROVEN to make them more money. The tried vehemently to kill the LP, music on radio, the CD burner, the Rio, the cassette tape, and they *actually* killed the minidisc. *Any* new media format or initiative that might reduce revenues is met with litigation and cries of not “uncle”, but “wolf”. And *never* with acceptance due to ‘pressure’.

I also never disputed corporations’ right to control their own business models, since they DO own the product and can do with it as they please. All I am saying is when the business model that ensured their high revenues withers, to keep their expectations realistic and not fool themselves about the reasons. And if they believe file sharing is “fully to blame”, they are plainly wrong.

“If you have actual data on decreased music consumed, I really would like to see it.”

You know as well as I do that such numbers are extremely difficult to come by. Not even the music industry has objective numbers on music consumption. But would you accept a documented decline in music sales? ;-)

“kids today DO NOT, DO NOT pay for music”

Any data on that? At all? Or is it just another assumption based on your mental model of the world?

“(’85-’89) I bought lots and lots of CD (…) Would I do this today? Of course not”

So because you are the type of person who would have downloaded music illegally (that you’d have bought otherwise), then by extension everyone else does the same? If that is your logic, then I see the problem. Personally, I don’t believe ‘kids’ who download 1.000 illegal music tracks are all kids who would have bought 1.000 tracks if the internet hadn’t existed – not even close. This is easily proven by the industry’s own numbers. The FACT is, the ‘kids’ who download what they can’t afford are the same ‘kids’ who used to record what they couldn’t afford on cassette tapes, and the ‘kids’ before them who used to listen on the radio to the records they couldn’t afford. I am actually trying to compile the blank cassette tape sales numbers right now, since I am suspecting that they will show that the high ratios of illegal downloads to legal purchases reported today will actually match the ratio of blank cassette copies to original albums back in the day. Disprove that, and you have a case.

In conclusion, I think you should re-read my article, this time without assuming I am trying to endorse or justify illegal activities (how the hell you got that from my article is simply beyond me). I am trying to point out a major flaw in the scapegoating logic that is all too prevalent in the music industry. And you are guilty of the same jumping-to-easy-answers, when you say “piracy and file sharing was, by far, the single biggest factor in the decline (…) This is really pretty simple”. It is *not* that simple, and that is the point of my article. You cling to this assumption because it is simple and fits into your world view, but you offer no evidence to support your claim, and that is why my article was sorely needed.

What the industry never likes to mention is that if you took the estimate downloads of music and replace each one of them with actual album and single purchases to get the same material across, you’d see probably the biggest boom in the record industry ever. Even with all those other factors for it’s decline. That makes no sense, because those downloads would not have equated to actual sales.

So what does that mean? That the illegal download means more people are hearing music then would have been had they been forced to buy.

How can that be a bad thing for the future of music?

Its STEALING!
Thats half the reason they do it!

How else to explain that no one cares about QUALITY- otherwise MP3s wouldnt exist- only quantity-

WHY the endless diatribes about how ‘It really NOT theft! No! See, because…etc.”

You kill off the record co.s, fine. No there is no one to find, nurture, and promote bands -properly-

the proof:

Todays music!

Hola comrades. I read quite an interesting blog post recently by Jens Roland called How to Kill the Music Industry. It describes the compounding reasons why a paradigm shift has occurred in the acquisition of music since (approx) 2000, relating specifi…

This whole music business is a scam and should be ashamed for itself.

And the ones who were being sold gave me a poor choice.
Copying was for me a way of getting the games I wanted to play.
If I didn’t write them myself.

Later on in the 80’s CDs became available but the price was again too high for me.
Compared to today the prices haven’t changed that much when the Euro was introduced here.
Before I paid FL40,= (Old Dutch currency) for CD and it didn’t matter where I bought it.
Today I pay 15 to 20 Euro for a CD and if I calculate it back to the old currency the price is even higher than back then.
They tend to drop after a while but still remain too high.
And again the same problem. How many times can you spend the money you have?
Once in my eyes but if you believe in Ceditcards and such you might think otherwise.

Today that market has changed but the music/movie industry are still living a pre-digital age while the rest of the world has moved on.

I’m not saying that piracy doesn’t dent the gross income of these companies but if I would to believe only what they are saying I think the word naive would be an big understatement.
Propaganda would be a word that comes pretty colse the way these companies use information and the way they try to inform you.
Halftruths mainly.
This article shows the other side of the coin.

For years the big companies are controlling the market until the Interwebs became available for the masses. Keep in mind that even these days enough people think Internet is just webpages/sites.
And what was the first thing they found, besides the porn, were sites where you could download the latest album of artists you never heard of or albums of your favourite artists you couldn’t buy in any stores near you.

Another thing I’m missing is the cloning these companies use.
How many albums are released that sound almost the same as most others by that company?
Or movies?
I wouldn’t even dare to post a list here of movies that are almost the same as any on that list.
Pretty much the same absent storyline as all the others.
Or what about music?
How many boy/girl bands have we seen since the 50’s?
How many Britney Spear clones are flooding the market?
People change and their taste changes too.
Or the repetitiveness on the radio of the same songs.
I’m not going to buy an album when it played daily on the radio.
After a while it starts to bore me and then annoy me.
I have my own radio at work but the only stations I can get are the big ones all sounding the same.

I’m going to close this one of with this.
In the 70’s cassette tapes were destroying the music industry.
In the 80’s VHS was destroying the movie industry.
And they are still using the same argument as they did back then so have they been destroyed by that technology? :P

These completely wrong-headed essays inevitably seem to want to justify what you all now have: lots of free music. The reality is that piracy and file sharing was, by far, the single biggest factor in the decline of the music industry. This is really pretty simple, guys.

Were there other reasons that contributed? Clearly. But the reality is that many, many people who used to pay good (and steep) prices for music don’t any more.

The other thing that these kinds of commentaries always rely on is the things they didn’t like about the way the labels did business. Well, guess what? That is the beauty of ownership, content, and free enterprise. The labels and artists OWNED this music. If they wanted to sell only to 10 people on earth and sell 1000 bundled CD’s ONLY and charge $1m each – well…THAT IS THE WAY THE MARKET WORKS.

Please don’t list a litany of things that you didn’t like about their pricing, marketing, distribution method as why it is ok to steal music.

As far as many other streams, on-line radio, etc. Many of these have been allowed to expand and flourish based on renegotiated rights that were agreed to based on the extreme pressure that labels were under to do *something*, *anything* to adapt given that the music was being shared freely. That is, file sharing itself helped to force these distribution methods into place and weaken the labels to the point of crying “uncle” and agree to almost any legit methods.

As far as less music being consumed, that is simply not the case. More music is consumed now than ever before due to the omnipresent iPod (and the fact that it is effectively FREE to any one who wants to take the time to find it.) If you have actual data on decreased music consumed, I really would like to see it.

Do I like greedy, big corporations like the record labels? No. Was I always happy to pay $18 for a CD? No. Would I prefer that more money goes directly to artists? Certainly. Those facts, as much as we might like them to, do not change the fact that these companies own this music and can sell however they see fit. Despite many claims to the contrary, the vast majority of artists want people to buy music even if from their labels.

I especially love point (8) – the labels actually “love it”! Yes, they have done something to sell single tracks online – how does this have anything to do with the facts that (1) music industry revenues have declined steeply (2) the timing is exactly coincidental to file sharing expansion (3) kids today DO NOT, DO NOT pay for music?

When I was in college (’85-’89) I bought lots and lots of CD despite being someone of fairly modest means: rent, beer, pizza, CDs. Would I do this today? Of course not. No need to pay for CDs.

This essay is one big justification of file sharing. At this point, I say go ahead and do it (like you need my permission) but do you really need to spend effort to make it seem noble and justified? Do you really need a list of rationals on why it really isn’t the problem? You’re stealing – call it what it is.

Mark Evans
Ann Arbor, MI

I think a lot of people don’t like the big labels because they are these huge corporations that make a lot of money. Well they also play a big part in getting music out to the masses.

Some of our greatest talent belong on these labels and without that talent, well the world will sound rather boring.

The Music industry is probably plotting to attempt the take down of one torrent “heavy-hitter” in hopes that the rest will follow out of the fear of the same fate.

I can’t see this ending well for the music industry until they start looking at the infrastructure. Ironically enough, that happens to be what the world’s economy needs right now.
*ahem*
What it is i’m trying to get at is that perhaps the music industry needs to take an awkward-long look at themselves and their surroundings, and take a big fat hint. The one that’s been staring them in the face since the Napster-fiasco in ‘00.

Don’t get me wrong, Metallica were right. Their music was being shared between thousands of people. But no one was making any money. How are they supposed to sue for the money they lost? I credit it to their own undoing (the band was having a rough time, their interpersonal issues, and not to mention, the cd sucked).

Things don’t look up for the music industry right now, Unless you happen to be The Jonas Brothers or Mylie Cyrus.

Check out my blog at http://enjoyyoureverysecond.blogspot.com for the old, the new, and the hidden gems of youtube and music.