p2pnet.net News View:- p2pnet reader Ted Vinieris is a music lover and downloader – and, “still a purchaser of CDs”.

So he was delighted when he found a site offering CDs at $5.99 – on a Big Music site, yet!

Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The internet has helped me discover many new artists not accessible through mainstream radio, and in these uncreative musical times where music is churned out in a cookie cutter method as you put it, downloading may be the only thing that has kept me attracted to new music.

The reason I’m more selective is that I feel CDs are overpriced and I don’t like that the record labels are treating their customers like criminals. But even more discouraging is the fact that record labels don’t take care of their artists, to help develop their careers as musicians and not just overhauling their image to appeal to specific target markets.

I heard a music historian state that if U2 had started their musical career today, releasing their first three albums as they did back in the 80’s, none of the four major labels would want them.

The same could be said about other artists that had a shaky start, who with solid label support developed into international successes over time. This happened because the labels took a risk and these risk takers were also music lovers.

Unfortunately, major record labels are no longer run by music lovers. They’ve been replaced by accountants who try to get the greatest return in the shortest time. In the long run, this shortsightedness is a losing strategy.

I read an article that Prince wrote a couple of years ago on the issue of downloading and if was available on his website. He basically classified the music buying public into two categories. The first category he tagged as “casual music listeners”. This category is made up of people who listen to and are attracted to hit singles heard on the radio. They do not buy a lot of music and probably never will. They don’t venture out to many concerts and they would skip through a CD and listen to the “hit” songs made appealing to them by constant radio play.

Prince tagged the second category as “the music fan”. He described these people as types who have a favourite band or bands of which they will buy many or all of that band’s CD releases. They like to have the CD and all its packaging, liner notes, artwork, etc. because it brings them closer to the artist. He felt people in this category are more likely to make many CD purchases in a given year and will also attend concerts and buy t-shirts. People in this category that download music files are more likely to make additional purchases that they would not normally make.

It’s become quite obvious that the major labels are only interested in maintaining control of their monopoly. Currently, only through the major labels can an artist achieve worldwide distribution of their music. Anyone with a dream of reaching a larger audience has to eventually go to a major label. Even indie labels are tied down by the majors’ control of distribution.

Indie labels have to sign deals with the majors to distribute their own artists’ music to larger audiences when the demand for their music grows. The main reason the Indie labels can’t provide large scale distribution is because of the major label monopoly control that won’t allow it.

With the advent of p2p clients over broadband internet connections, the major labels’ distribution control is being challenged. Up until now artists have been tied up in one sided contracts that financially favour the major labels. Peer to peer distribution gives artists an alternative to signing with a major label, allowing them to take control of their own future and to reap larger rewards at the same time. If this choice exists, why would any artist still want to sign with a major label?

In this new landscape, major labels don’t stand a chance to attract new talent to profit from and to sustain their way of life. So it is in their best interest to destroy P2P at any cost.

With all of this in mind, I have to say I was really surprised to see www.yourmusic.com surface, selling CDs at $US5.99, including shipping. I feel it’s a step in the right direction, one that the CD buying public has always wanted.

Unfortunately, it’s currently available to US citizens only, but hopefully with time will be more widely available.

With the price of downloads at .99 cents per song, a physical CD for $5.99 sounds like a bargain.

Ted Vinieris

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<-----Artificial intelligence is a fake----->

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 25th, 2005 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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