For more than a decade the music industry has claimed that digital piracy is the main cause for the gradual decline in revenues. However, looking at the sales data of the music industry itself shows that the disappointing income might be better explain…

This is obviously all bullshit. Until they start acting reasonable, it is more respectable to copy stuff online than it is to give them any money.

Forgot to mention the obvious…it’s not piracy killing the music industry, it’s greed corporations with power-hungry tactics that are killing the industry!

There’s also the fact that the music industry isn’t being killed at all? You know, as shown by the actual article?

Also, the graph is far too shiny.

I actually found file-sharing to be one of the greatest things to have happened to the internet industry. It’s just that instead of sharing physically, you share online. I’m only opposed IF a website FORCES users (not optional) to pay up (like $20.80 per month or year) to download copyrighted files available and that they are not related to the media companies at all or won’t even support them at all. This, on the other hand is what you can call stealing. As long as it’s free, nobody loses anything,
except profit (profit often result in feeding greed and lust for most cases). The only use for money is most probably to invest in new opportunities, payment and nothing else. Everyone would die one day, and money won’t be with you in the graveyard. Nobody is satisfied by having millions of dollars in their pockets, because these groups would still demand more, no kidding since everyone with that much money still wants to be richer. But having an average, normal income is better than having no cash or being poor, right? Who wants YouTube or Wikipedia to start forcing everybody to pay as a subscription service? Maybe a greedy owner perhaps? It’s human nature to go for something that would benefit only themselves. Even if it destroy the lives of others and disbenefit others unless it’s the will who decides not to do so.

Internet Piracy (or is it file-sharing) is never going to destroy the industry. Looking at the market, they’re still growing and prospering, creativity in entertainment industries is still thriving. Video game sales are much higher per year now. The Wii gained over 60 million sales in just 3 years as opposed to the NES that ends with about 60 million when it reaches that milestone during the 90′s which is probably 7 years or more. Music CD sales are decreasing, but legal music downloading
services are increasing in sales. Piracy costs are mostly due to investing and funding the campaign fruitlessly against piracy. And where is the proof that piracy costs companies, where IS the source or is it self-proclaimed. They can tell me the name of any company which runs a successful product in the public’s eyes and declares bankrupt due to piracy. And some entertainment companies blamed piracy instead of the late 2000′s recession for their money loss, how stupid is that? Nintendo blames DS piracy in Europe for lower sales, but shouldn’t it be that everyone is beginning to wait for the 3DS instead which has been known for being backward-compatible with the Nintendo DS. Cassette piracy already existed since the 70′s, CD piracy started immediately after CD’s began to overtake the cassette in popularity during the 80′s. Now it’s direct digital legal downloads in the 00′s that is reducing CD sales as we can see with the graph above
and as usual, piracy is prevalent.
SO WHAT? Piracy is there to keep these companies in action, just like yin and yang. Have piracy prevented the world from advancing? NO! Have
piracy made somebody lazy to create? NO! Have piracy reduced earnings? NO! If it’s yes, it’s usually because of investing anti-piracy measures or just DEBT.

For companies: Why not you just stop whining and panicking? Piracy is not destroying annual revenue. You’re still gaining more than losing unless you’re in debt. They are still there in the 1700′s and would stay until all companies cease to exist. Anti-Piracy is not what you focus on, but creating better products and services for the future. And don’t say that piracy affects creativity, if it does, there should not be one software developer or music groups and singles out there. The only way for a company to go bankrupt because of piracy is when they pay for DRM or copy-protection measures or fund anti-piracy organizations who can’t do crap to protect your product.
Continue on, stop wasting your time stopping piracy and try to gain trust and support instead AND DON’T SELL IT OFF FOR MONEY. Piracy & Corporations, Poor & Rich, Internet & Media, Yin & Yang, Freedom & Authority, Profit & Non-Profit, Privacy & Surveillance, they are opposites. And come on, corporate taxes costs FAR more than piracy every year, due to higher income and assets.

Anyone Else: I’m not taoist, and the name above comes from a japanese logo in japanese characters. Well, we’ll always have monkeys like “Common Sense” supporting anti-file sharing. Piracy always catch up with the latest anti-piracy technology,
and as we can all see, the “Jolly Roger” flag would always fly high and would never fall. Also, in the 1900′s property piracy is already there and they keep on passing anti-piracy bills that have no effect.

As a self-releasing artist, I have had to weigh up the pros and cons, especially since I am at the beginning of my career, and I want to be able to afford to keep creating music.

When I grew up, video recorders and blank videos were used by the general public to record TV shows, but no one really complained about piracy. The same with cassettes…Sony, Toshiba and all the rest used to make Hi-Fi systems where by pushing one button, you copy a CD onto a cassette.

The question is…what if you gave that cassette away as a present to someone else, but you kept the CD. Did it suddenly become piracy? Well, back then, we didn’t think so. We were just sharing music that we enjoyed and that others enjoyed!

Piracy (in my perspective) is where you copy something and SELL it for monetary gain. In South-East Asia, CD piracy is rampant, and some businesses will copy another companies software, music or movies, and sell them off to make a huge profit. The money lines the pockets of organized crime instead of the rightful owners. I can walk into nearly any CD store in the area, and it is likely that they will sell Originals (for about $10) as WELL as Pirates (for about $1).

Are you doing this? If not, then you’re not really a pirate as far as I’m concerned.

I bought an Eric Clapton Unplugged CD when I was a teenager, and used it so much that it got all scratched up. So I threw that away, and bought the digital download. But that wasn’t good enough…I wanted to have album in my hands…so eventually, I bought another copy of the CD, and then a copy of the DVD at a second hand store. (another question could be whether we should be allowed to sell second hand stuff!)

I buy both downloads and CDs and I’ve also done the file-sharing thing. And when I really like something, such as Eric Clapton’s Unplugged album, I will go out and buy it.

But why buy an album when sometimes there are only three good songs on it, while the rest are filler?

The way I see it is this: if Musicians want people to buy their albums instead of just singles, they need to spend time creating a Story. When I created my album, I saw the 12 songs as 12 chapters of a book. Each song should lead into the other as part of a story. Every song is a sub-story, while the whole album is the overall story. I also wrote my explanation of the story in the album notes so that people can understand why I chose to place the songs in a certain order. Even all the pictures inside the CD booklet contributes to the story and has a meaning.

If your album is just a ‘digital box of singles’, then it’s not a surprise if people would rather buy the single they want, than a whole box of it. But if your album is a ‘Story’, then people have a reason to buy your album.

My Conclusion is this:

1. File-sharers: If you really like the music that you’ve managed to get for free, you will buy it. No one has to force you. It’s like when someone gives you a free sample of some tasty bread…if it impresses you, you WILL buy it – no one needs to convince you…you’re convinced!

2. Musicians: Make good music, and make sure EVERY track is good, and not just filler. Also, spend time on creating a story from the album. There must be a reason for people to want to buy your album instead of a single.

Seriously disappointed in the rest of the album.

I then only started buying “Best of” albums on cassette. When the CD came out, I repurchased my favorite “best of”s on CD, along with any compilation CDs (Usually one hit wonders.)

When I was around 30, I started buying CD singles.

Today, I rarely buy any music anymore mainly because I’m located overseas and the stores here don’t sell singles – (Maybe for korean songs, but not the american top 40).

The DEA in the UK is a law constructed by luddites when visionaries are needed! Rather than fight the Internet and the resultant consumer patterns, they should evolve their business model to take advantage of the new opportunities.

Fighting piracy through measures such as the DEA have negative repercussions on our society and economy. It’s an insult to democracy by being so blatantly written and pushed through by lobbyists from the BPI and other “music industry” figures. It ignored the British judiciary system by assuming guilt in the absence of proof. It jeopardises our young digital economy, by eroding the chances of gaining truly wireless cities, and removes any incentive to provide free wi-fi areas in McDonalds and Starbucks, etc.

What’s more, your research suggests that fall in profitability of recorded music is due to digitalisation NOT piracy, and other research even sshows that filesharers spend more on music as a whole (gigs, merch, etc).

For my blog on the implications of the DEB, and why piracy may in fact be beneficial to the music industry, please go to http://bit.ly/a5rnUk. Feel free to digg it too. Cheers (from Manchester, UK).

This is not the oil or utility industries. This is not a vital component to the success of society. No one NEEDS music to survive except for the record labels. If anything, we are talking about what is now the lowest common denominator of all of our entertainment choices. Mere audio in a world dominated by multimedia. 25 years ago, music was very important as it held a huge share of a much simpler entertainment market and was an important part of most people’s culture. Today, we have much more complex forms of entertainment available in greater volume, often for free or very close to it, which leaves music and those who make their livings off of it in a position I do not envy at all. With all these changes, the value associated of music has not gone up but instead has been driven down even more. I am an amateur musician myself, but I have already vowed that it is and will always remain a hobby for me, because I believe music has evolved into a cultural standard to be enjoyed by everyone, not a luxury reserved for only those who can afford to pay for it. When my band gets together, it costs us money to do so, not the other way around.

Between games, movies, music, software, books, websites themselves, streaming services, and even the cost of our connections, more and more things are battling for a spot in our entertainment budget. Add to that a failing global economy and many industries completely unrelated to entertainment being in decline and it’s a recipe for disaster for any industry unwilling to cater to the desires or even demands of their customers. There will be downsizing. There will be layoffs. There will have to be changes or many industries as we know them will simply cease to exist given enough time failing to appeal to the already fickle and diluted budgets of the average entertainment consumer.

In a battle between people and the music industry, who do you think stands to win? We can all survive just fine without the industry, but can the same be said about the industry surviving without us? Constant alienation of their customer base, litigious behavior and calling for draconian policies and laws to protect their profits will only cause further losses in an already troubled industry. They have not earned the nickname MAFIAA because of their honest and innocent business practices. In the past they could easily get away with it and they managed to do so quite easily with very little resistance or even knowledge of their actions from their customers. Now, there is very little that can be done to change the outcome in secret when every little detail can so easily come under public scrutiny because of the internet.

How many people out there aren’t spending money on music out of principle and/or distrust for this industry which makes itself so hard to be trusted? http://www.boycott-riaa.com/ has been active and growing now for half a decade… How long could any other industry continue to operate with such underwhelming public support?

Customers not only spending money on music, but also driving additional sales through word of mouth and patronage at live shows(where the real money for the artists has always been)are a precious commodity to the industry and the artists themselves. You can’t be a rock star without a stage to perform on, after all… although the labels would love to convince the artists otherwise, but it’s just another brilliant falsehood from the recording industry. In reality, recorded music has been dwarfed by other industries and is now a much smaller piece of the pie than they could ever admit to their stockholders.

The people are the industry’s lifeblood, and more and more it seems that the industry has less and less respect for the people, because in truth, I believe they never respected us. It’s actually a sad state of affairs that people are just now realizing that the shepherds have been fleecing us and the artists all along for what amounts to being a middleman that contributes very little to the final product.

I believe we’re approaching the apex of the tipping point now. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show. The music industry in it’s death throes is going to be quite entertaining to watch, more so than the “entertainment” they continue to claim to own at least.

Till then I’m patiently waiting to take these fucks out for good, And get the half million they stole from me by using my songs without asking on compilation cd’s. Lets hope these criminal activities will one day come to the light.

It would stand to reason that given the opportunity to buy 1-3 tracks instead of the entire 10-15 track album it would decrease the music industry profits.

I’d expect them their revenues to go down by 50 to 90 percent.

The “industry” on the other hand, will settle for nothing less than world wide control of media, no matter what.

M$, RIAA, Verizon, etc are all in bed to get her. And they are using politics, threats, and courts t gain thier ends.

Go figure……What ever happened to freedom of expression?

Osiris and the Eagle, as long as you don’t get caught…..

http://digg.com/d31OqF4

as ive recently moved to a BIG city, music piracy has let me test bands i may want to see live, which is more expensive than buying the album, but at least the band gets more money from gigs directly. most recent band i saw was two weeks ago; hadouken! and they were worth the price i paid even though i coulda bought two or three albums with what i spent on the ticket. this is one thing piracy may have given bands the advantage of having more people at their live gigs. more people can afford it, and the bands get more money in the long run!!

127 Apr 20, 2010 at 00:54 by Anonymous
You idiot.

THINK about something for a moment here…

If you don’t PAY for music… how can the musician AFFORD to continue making music?

What if I said to you, after a hard day of work and effort, that you were not getting paid?

Generaton “WhY” is nothing but a bunch of lazy slobs with no level of personal responsibility, or expectations of having to ‘earn’ any thing.

It’s not like their not getting paid. If only the middle-man took a little less cut for the artists work!

People who download not necessarily would’ve bought the stuff in the first place. Having said that all reports show that filesharers buy more music than your non-filesharers.

What’s killing the music industry is live gigs, concerts because the industry can’t profit from it like they do with CD sales.

How would you like it if you worked hard all day and only get paid less than 5 percent?

You IDIOT!

http://www.rapcoalition.org/

I know I don’t pay for music anymore and it is directly related to different ways to obtain it. The money I spend is sunk into different channels but it still there. The RIAA just believes I’m pirating it instead of giving my money to Comedycast Cable or XM/Siris radio.

There are an unlimited amount of goods and services in the world, and they cost money. If you don’t have enough money or aren’t interested enough in the good to spend your money, then you can’t have it. You’re not sticking it to the man… you’re trying to justify stealing because it’s easy to get away with. It’s the mindset of a 3 year old, and I’m constantly amazed that people over that age try and justify the behavior.

Grow up and support the artists you like who have invested time and money into their art. If you don’t like major labels, don’t buy their garbage. There’s more than enough good music and artists in the world that are worthy of your support.