[philipp]

As for my response to the Register article, I think the music industry is making plenty of money. I think people are buying and listening to as much music as they ever did. I think the industry is panicking because they are afraid of the changes occuring with distribution of their products. They're simply afraid they're losing control. Of course, no one would get behind them over such an immature fear so they present their fears in terms of theft and piracy and losses. Everyone would join them in such a fight, right? Now people are realizing that they're losing nothing and nothing has been stolen from them. They still own their property and they're still making lots of money off of it. Soon, perhaps, the public will see them as nothing more than "chicken little".

[MaxCast]

I too think it is a combination of factors, but I do think the price of CD's are too high!  I buy used or through BMG at $6 to $8 each.  When BMG doesn't have what I want I go to CDuniverse and pay more if I want it.

Over the last 4 years my music buying has increased.

No matter how you slice it, "borrowing" is illegal no matter how poor or young you are.  I'm talking a full CD that you listen to more than once.  With that said I do find demo discs a great way to audition new music.  If you like it go buy the full CD.

I get most recommendations from demos, audio boards and XM radio.

[kfr01]

CD prices are too high and crap like that Sony/BMG rootkit scandal turn honest customers off.  

Good job music industry.

[ctviggen]

I also think CD prices are too high.  They should be under $10 and very special CDs should be $12.  I can't stand paying $20+ for a CD and typically will do so only when I consider the CD very important.

[Scott F.]

No matter how you slice it, "borrowing" is illegal no matter how poor or young you are.

Of course you are absolutely right.

The way I phased that made it appear as if it is OK that people in poorer countries illegally download music. I was just trying to give the reason (as I see it) why pirating music is so prevelant in those countries.

[DeadFish]

Too many thoughts on this to harness at one time, but I echo Scott, Lonewolf and others on lack of quality new artists, at least to my tastes.  Likewise, I am much more likely to buy something I am marginally interested in as a 'used' or discounted cd.  I imagine those stats aren't in the original data.

One thing I would like to mention, as I see it, is the aging of the 'baby boomers'.   Quite literally, the 'boomers' really set the ball rolling on the music product industry, being the first major group as we grew into consumers, to have free time and loose change.  My folks grew up to work and help their parents.  I grew up looking for something to spend money on and the blooming music business was a great direction, especially in the 'gold-rush'days of early rock.  Some of you 'older' folks out there, can you remember when the electric guitar really took off and many, many of our peers got started with new and innovative bands?  That is not to say there aren't similar now, however, as the biggest demographic to stroll the face of the earth, there WERE a lot of us.  And we had discretionary funds to spend.
Now, mostly in our 50s or so, we HAVE the music we liked already (sometimes many copies), the new markets AREN'T catering to US anymore particularly, and with retirement coming around the bend and still we are buying into mortgages....that discretionary spending becomes more discrete whilst paying for the kid's college.  And the end of our road is just up ahead....
Someone also mentioned the high competition for our extra money.  The fuel industry also did a lot to suck up our spare change after Katrina...
Growing up, I had fewer choices, and now EVERYone wants a slice of my pie.  In the 60's kids could do Boy Scouts or Khouri League, but now, both of those are shadows of their former ranks while there are groups for whatever taste your pleasure tends.  Similarly on our choices of entertainments now.

Well, there is ONE aspect for a rant y'all might consider.
And I'm sure there are more.

Good topic, and thanks for tuning in...

Regards,
DeadFish

[MaxCast]

No matter how you slice it, "borrowing" is illegal no matter how poor or young you are.

Of course you are absolutely right.

The way I phased that made it appear as if it is OK that people in poorer countries illegally download music. I was just trying to give the reason (as I see it) why pirating music is so prevelant in those countries.

That is exactly the way I took it.  And I wasn't trying to implicate you, my brotha.  I have a few "borrowed" CD's and a few more DVD's  
It is hard not to borrow stuff when you walk into the mall and see $19.98 for a cd I'm not sure I even like.  

[JeffB]

I happen to like Heavy Metal and in most all of its forms, classic, death, black, speed, glam, nwobhm, Gothenberg.  I think there is a massive amount of great music here, both old and new to be purchased.  However, it gets zero play on the radio.  Even on cable where there are two metal stations, the one station plenty much plays only glam and the other only hardcore.  Hardcore being the one form of metal I don't much like.  And while I like glam, this stuff all came out in the 80s, so it is hard to imagine the youth of today getting to into music that is 20yrs old.

Since the music I love gets no airplay the only way to learn about it is through exchange of music with friends.  Sometimes the small record labels give out mix CDs of their artists at concerts.  These mix CDs are a great way to get people to learn about new music.  I think the mix CD idea is also a good way to give music to friends.  They get to know about the music, and if they like it then they go buy the CD.  However, once you start recording all your music to a harddrive, I imagine it gets easy for a lot of people to completely swap their entire music collections.

For me a seriously limiting factor is price.  If I only wanted 1 CD, then maybe I would spend $20.  But when I want 10, I don't feel like dropping $200.  Usually, I just get discouraged and then buy nothing.  If I could buy 10 cds for $5 each, then they might make a $50 sale instead of nothing.

As I wrote this, I couldn't help but think of the following:

"The Man. Oh, you don't know The Man? The Man's everywhere: in the White House, down the hall, Miss Mullins; she's The Man! And The Man ruined the ozone, and he's burning down the Amazon and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! Okay! And there used to be a way to stick it to The Man, it was called rock 'n roll. But guess what? Oh no! The Man had to ruin that too with a little thing called MTV! So don't waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome 'cause The Man's just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourself a favor and just give up!" [Dewey Finn, School of Rock]

[lonewolfny42]

News story for today.....

Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday reported its quarterly profit almost doubled thanks to strong sales of digital songs and lower costs, but revenue missed market expectations and its shares fell.

The company, whose artists include Madonna, Green Day and Sean Paul, said fiscal first-quarter revenue fell 4 percent to $1.04 billion. Analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates had forecast revenue of $1.09 billion.

[/list:u]

But not without problems.....[/list:u]

Warner Music also said it received another subpoena in February from the New York state attorney general's office in connection with an ongoing antitrust investigation into the pricing of digital music downloads.

[/list:u]

The full story is

here....... [/list:u]

[WerTicus]

I had a 20 something year old girl at my house the other day and she had never heard of the song "Stairway to Heaven." That is just unbelievable to me.

so did that line work then?  

also, why do people use itunes when there is far cheaper alternatives with better quality files too! www.allofmp3.com

[nathanm]

Because if you do that the Russian army will come and shoot you dead you filthy pirate!  I had to laugh, I was watching one of the big Apple conference videos where they had Madonna appear on a live video and announcing how her discography was going to be available For The First Time on iTunes.   Wooo!  So I pulled up allofmp3, type in Madonna...hmmm what have we were?  If I'm not mistaken that looks like a good deal 'o the Madonna catalog. How is that even possible!? Bless them Russians, I am really surprised they are still kicking. Warms my heart if they are untouchable by lawsuit-happy Americans, but I have a gut feeling their days are numbered. Looking up Metallica on there and getting results certainly raises eyebrows.  I'm so amazed the goon squad hasn't shut 'em down yet.

[WerTicus]

probably cause the russian mafia is scarier than the american one that madona is signed to.  

[lonewolfny42]

No wonder I'm hearing the same lousy songs, over and over on the radio. I missed the show tonight...."PrimeTime Live"...but here's the report.... Top of the Charts.......

Seems payola is still around.....[/list:u]