[Rumori] re: Songwriters Say Piracy Eats Into Their Pay

[matt davignon]

When I download mp3's, it gives me an idea of whether I like the artist. If 
I do, I buy their cd because I want to listen to it at places other than my 
computer. If I have a whole album, admittedly, I'll often buy a different 
album, but I do buy something of the artist's.

However, most of the artists I'm introduced to by mp3's are "underground" 
artists. A lot of the major label stuff that the download lawsuits are based 
on are based on a "singles" market rather than an "album" market. (MTV-type 
music producers focus more on making the singles "really great" than making 
the albums "good overall". You're supposed to buy the album because the 
single is good.) With illegal mp3 downloads, I think people are finding they 
don't need the whole album.

So that's 2 reasons why the larger record labels don't like free mp3 
downloads: 1) It allows unrepresented artists to be presented on not such a 
skewed playing ground. 2) Since non-single tracks are being offered as 
samples, more people know whether or not they'd like the album before buying 
it.

Now, if the issue is loss of artist/songwriter revenue, why aren't they 
going after the sale of used cd's?


>From: David meme <david at locarecords.com>
>
>Arguing about whether or not the man lost money is ridiculous. 
>Fundamentally I think it is a no-brainer to accept that if someone 
>downloads an album then they are hardly likely to shell out cash for a 
>physical CD (unless the quality is bad). Cassette culture worked because we 
>didn't just rip all musicians off but instead we wanted the *higher 
>quality* better looking cool vinyl/CD so went out to buy it. That is how 
>musicians make money - from CD sales. MP3 culture could be the same but if 
>people are swapping CD quality stuff then inevitably sales will suffer.
>

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