White Trash Beautiful
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 12:32am
Ha ha ha... there's no way the music business is going to go out of business entirely. These same arguments have been made over and over again but they're still making music. When tapes came out the same thing was said. Now people can just record our music on the radio and we're not gonna make any money.

Then the internet comes around and people start burning CDs. Then music artists start talking about how they're not gonna make any money now. Bullshit. I'm sure it effects their income but not enough to make any of these multi millionaires poor. Not by a longshot.
Posts: 7745
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 12:47am
You missed my point. If this Canadian judge ruled that both downloading and sharing music was perfectly legal, could you imagine the explosion of companies starting up in Canada to capitalize on that? We would have Napster clones coming out of our ears, and all of them would be based in Canada.
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 1:10am
Ya but what's ever been stopping people from downloading music? Sure it's illegal but come on it's like the equivalent of speeding in traffic. Sure it can get you a ticket but that doesn't stop people from doing it.
Posts: 7745
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 2:22am
It's not what's been stopping people from downloading; it's what's been stopping people from creating services that are designed only to find music, and then aggressively marketing these services.

If someone designed a service, marketed it well, it could conceivably put an enormous dent in the music industry's wallet.

Sure, you can use Kazaa to find and download music, but you don't see the makers of Kazaa advertising their service on TV as a way to get music for free. If that were to happen, the music industry would collapse.
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 5:12am
No but it really wouldn't Kas... I don't see that putting the music industry out of business at all... because first of all.. who do you know that doesn't know that they can download music off the internet for free? There's not a single person I know that is not aware that they can download music off of the internet and burn them onto CDs for much cheaper than purchasing CDs.

I don't see how agressive marketing is going to make internet piracy go from pain in the ass to the Music Industry to death of the Music Industry.
Posts: 7745
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 4:29pm
Aggressive marketing is but one of the factors that would come in. Anyone aggressively marketing a product would probably put some time into having extra features. Promoting having CD quality files on their network, the ability to download and burn entire albums with a few clicks, etc.

I can imagine how such a judicial ruling would, in a short time, create a very, very competitive market for the music industry.

And remember, you're thinking in terms of now. Sure, now people don't download all their music, but give a company or ten a few years to work on marketing and product improvement. I would bet that after three or four years most people would be downloading and burning the majority of their music of their music. The Canadian music industry would croak. There's no way they can compete profitably online with something that's free.
Posts: 405
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 9:29pm
Kas, explain this to me. KaZaA is going to launch a multi-million dollar advertising and marketing scheme to get people to use their product...

...for free.

Clearly no music industry can compete with something that is marketed so clevery and is still free... but neither can any company afford to spend millions on advertising for something they won't be charging for!

You know, around the same time there was a report released which basically said that downloading music and record sales have no connection - and in fact, I've bought more records since I started downloading music than I ever would otherwise.

And I really don't feel much sympathy for the recording industry. If they can't compete, that's to bad for them, isn't it? I'd rather buy an album than burn it - the only times I burn CDs normally are when I want to put a nice compilation of songs I like together.

Which isn't to say I don't buy albums by those same artists too.

And most of the people I know are the same way.

Downloading music has been around for nine years, and the recording industry is still making millions of dollars a year. boo hoo.
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 10:16pm
Ya I agree completely. There's no way that the music industry is going to all of a sudden cease to make a profit. And you bring up very good points. Downloading music has if anything exposed me to music that I might not have ever heard of.

Perfect example, I was listening to the Daredevil Soundtrack and there was a song I liked by a band called Chevelle. I'd never heard of Chevelle. So I go online and download some of their music. I love it. So what did I go and do? Well since then I've purchased both of their CDs. I never would have done that if I didn't hear their music first and figure out that I really enjoy it.
Posts: 7745
  • Posted On: Apr 5 2004 10:39pm
Kas, explain this to me. KaZaA is going to launch a multi-million dollar advertising and marketing scheme to get people to use their product...

...for free.

Clearly no music industry can compete with something that is marketed so clevery and is still free... but neither can any company afford to spend millions on advertising for something they won't be charging for!


You have much to learn, young one. How does Kazaa support itself now, the service is free, after all. They have a free version of their product, and a paid for version. I don't think that would change much.

Downloading music has been around for nine years, and the recording industry is still making millions of dollars a year. boo hoo.


It may have been around for nine years, but it only recently became really popular. What hinders its expansion is the fact that it is illegal to download copyrighted material.
Posts: 1584
  • Posted On: Apr 6 2004 12:28am
Kazaa is such a horrible program. A joke, really. I couldn't imagine ever becoming desperate enough to download that program onto my computer, much less ever paying for it. In fact I'd call it a virus, because there is no uninstaller included with the software package.

Limewire, the only way to go for those who aren't connected to file rich college networks.... DC++ is also very, very nice.