Prohibition and online music
p2pnet.net News:- “It’s astonishing to see the a buzz created by the launch of a legal music downloading service – in this case Napster’s arrival in the UK,” writes Ashlee Vance in The Industry Standard guest blog here, going on:
“Companies such as Napster, Apple, Real and even old world types like Coke and McDonald’s want to cash in on this ‘rush’ toward legal online music. The frenzied pace at which music services are being rolled out by these companies and others makes it seem like legal downloads are all the rage and like there is a pot of gold waiting for anyone with some neat software.
“In reality, however, legal music sales are pretty paltry. Apple’s iPod is responsible for all this excitement, and it ain’t exactly because the device plays legal songs.
“With 70 million songs moved on iTunes so far, Apple is the clear leader in legal online music sales. Let’s be generous and double that figure to estimate total sales of all legal music vendors. That gives about $140 million in revenue per year.
“Who cares.
“The record labels claim to have lost more than $2 billion per year in music sales due to piracy. Whatever Coke, Apple and Wal-Mart are doing to lessen this total is not of significant benefit. Apple, however, could well make $1 billion in iPod sales this year, which certainly helps Apple.
“The prohibition-like atmosphere surrounding online music is painful to watch. The labels can keep suing music fans all they like, and their actions may make a small dent in the piracy problem. But, despite all the fuss, legal downloads still aren’t terribly interesting at all. The real money is to be made by using hardware to cash-in on speakeasy tunes, and it’s going to stay that way for a long, long time.”
May 20th, 2004 at 6:35 pm
Within 2-3 years the shareholders of the labels will figure and act as though the games is up. Label exec will go.
May 20th, 2004 at 11:17 pm
agreed . . . i’m pretty sure that these bloated record labels know that this is the beginning of the end. fewer artists want to deal with them, and technology such as p2p servers and inexpensive professional software allow artists to do the whole thing themselves.
when you’re overcharging the entire world on a product that should be much cheaper, while simultaneously screwing over the artists, your days are numbered. they’re greedy and they deserve it.
the future is small, independent labels releasing REAL music.
May 23rd, 2004 at 7:18 am
Downloading music has not dented the music industries grasp on their consumers. They have dented their grasp on their consumers by beating people over the head with inflated sale prices, pop music, and horrible pr tactics. It said to see them not admitting their faults and blaming the people that support them.
Imagine if every other faltering business started telling their customers that it their fault they have bad sales. Customers should debar from proper sales avenues that have been guide lined.
May 25th, 2004 at 2:34 pm
If we could boycott all CD sales except indies for just one year…or until the RIAA stops their legal campaign…and increase filesharing while doing so…ban radio…MTV…cripple advertisers…and stop paying outrageous prices for one song online! Put those mothers out of business and create a free independent market… it would be sudden death to the monopolies!