Message to Big Music
p2pnet.net News View:- Yesterday’s post on the way Britain’s formerly respected The Times newspaper demonstrated its servility by abasing itself before the Big Four music cartel also sparked a Reader’s Write from Hollybags.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
OK, now that I’ve got your attention I can explain that I’ve got it all figured out. I know why these major corporation’s are bleating about how filesharing is harming their turnover.
Filesharing enables us to obtain a sneak preview of a movie or an album or even some piece of software. If we like what we see then it might be worth buying the product retail. Whereas if the product is not what you were expecting then you can simply delete the offending file from your computer, no harm no foul.
This is where the cartel’s are losing money. From the sub-standard album releases and the cheap, cliché driven movies.
Before I had internet access I relied on the single’s charts and recommendations from friends. I have quite a few crap albums from back then. Purchased on the strength of a cracking single. Which turned out to be the only decent song on the whole CD.
Now I have access to countless reviews and even a free sample if the reviews are favourable. This means that if the album really is a belter afterall then I can safely go out and spend some hard earned cash on the purchase. And my cash really is hard earned so I don’t want to throw it away on inferior pap.
The same can be said of movies. I wonder how many of those thousands of torrent leeches who downloaded ‘Revenge of The Sith’, six hours before it’s premiere later went out and watched it in the cinema? At least 95% of them, I’d be willing to wager some of that aforemantioned hard earned cash on it! After all, the majority of them will have been big Star Wars fans, eager to find out the missing piece of the puzzle. The remaining 5% probably thought it was porn.
It’s expensive to go to the movies these days. And retail DVD prices don’t seem to be falling very far. Sure we’ve seen all the “3 for 2″ deals and what have you, but those are mostly the poor quality movies which no one really wanted to buy when they were full price anyway. And one or two ‘niche’ titles which were never gonna sell much at any price.
Now, thanks to filesharing, people can make a much more informed choice about what products they want to spend money on. Instead of relying in pot luck or blind chance. This must be costing the Big 4 millions in lost revenue.
All those purchases which people later realise was a mistake never take place.
Most of what’s available on the common peer to peer networks is guaranteed to be in some sort of ‘lossy’ format such as DivX or MP3. This allows for quicker downloads but obviously sacrifices quality. If you want superior quality, high-definition audio and/or video there’s only one place to go. Retail! Even if you were able to find 1:1, EXACT copies of your media, you’ll still be missing a quality cover, case and insert, etc. Maybe the covers have even been scanned at an ultra-high resolution to preserve the usually tiny text. I assume most people wouldn’t bother to print it out on nice glossy paper, even if their printer was capable of printing the required resolution. The amount of ink required alone would push the cost of such a notion well into the region of about 1/2 the price of the related product. More if there is a multi-page booklet included! Plus the time and effort required to crop the printout and make-up the case, etc. Hardly worth it to my mind. If you’re gonna spend any sort of money on a thing like that then don’t be a dick and at least direct your cashflow towards the people who released the damn thing in the first place.
Another side to this story is the fact that filesharing is a much better mechanism for discovering new or obscure music.
I remember watching a little known band (at the time and in the UK anyway) called ‘Nickel Creek’ on ‘Later with Jools Holland’. Loved the 1st song they played so I thought, “hmm, I think i’ll check out their latest album… “. Before the show had finished I had the complete album at my finger tips. Checked it out and thought the entire album was great. The next time I was in a half way decent music shop I made sure to dig it out. I would never have bought the album on the strength of the 2-3 songs I’d heard. I’ve fallen for that gag before. But thanks to the power of two thousand electric donkeys, Nickel Creek CD sales were up by 1!
Also add to that the random trawls through different p2p index sites, merrily clicking on slightly interesting links with a cry of, “Meh… May as well see what this is like… It’s not costing me anything except bandwidth, and that’s costing me money even when it’s not being used.” I’ve found plenty of great artists using this method and always look out for the best of them when I manage to get to a music store.
More often than not, though, the store in question doesn’t have the album I’m looking for, or hasn’t even heard of the artist (I have obscure tastes). Where is the loss of revenue if I’ve downloaded an album and yet find it physically impossible to purchase by conventional means? (Quantic’s ‘The 5th Exotic’ anyone?) I am unwilling to shop online for various reasons. So therefore they have not lost any revenue as a result of my downloading an album. Rather they have gained a potential customer, should I find the album for sale somewhere in the future.
The entertainment industry has always relied on the hard sell. Forcing massive publicity campaign’s upon us to encourage interest in lack-lustre products. Exciting movie trailers with loads of explosions, which turn out to be better than the movie itself. Constant tv/radio hype about the latest ‘in’ band, who disappear shortly after their 1st appearance on Top of the Pops.
Now they are unable to control the surge of public opinion and exchange of information.
Now we are able to sample an entire product and judge it’s worth, rather than base that judgement on the most positive aspects alone.
Now they are unable to trick us with their flashing lights and catchy slogans.
Now we can separate the wheat from the chaff with zero expenditure.
Now they are unable to sell their product’s to the merely curious, for the curious are notorious. Their curiosity leads them to new ways of doing things. New ways of thinking about things. You can be your own film/music critic. You can decide what’s hot and what’s not.
Sorry big cartel guys, us little people each have our own voice, and we’ve found a way to amplify that voice across continents, in every language. We don’t need to listen to your doctrine anymore, the choice has always been ours to make. You took that from us. Now we are taking it back. Now it’s our turn to call the shots.
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Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
regurgitating it whole – File sharing: The Big Lie, p2pnet, June 7, 2005
June 8th, 2005 at 9:33 am
*Stands up*
*Claps like a manian*
Well said, old chap. well said.
June 8th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
Here here! I might as well sign myself under this rant…
Since you talk about SW3 – I am in that 95% of populace you speak of – downloaded, did a quick fly-thru and bought theater tickets, and DivX will be on my disk untill DVDs come out (Georgy-boy, will this be any time soon?
But I will not go into theater or a record store blindly no more…
… p2p moto should be download, sample, buy (if the price is right) or delete …
But do you think RIAA/MPAA members will recognize the increase in profit from p2p? No way! They are only talking about lost sales …
June 8th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Hear here!
Let’s stick this one to the top of the page somewhere.
I’d like to add..
Big Music “piracy” statistics never seem to mention the Delete volume on file sharing. Does anyone keep 50% of the **** they download? 25%?
Also, is it a coincidence, or has the quality of music been on the decline since Napster? It seems file sharing first became big at a time of musical revolution, riding on the tail end of cyberpunk and electronica crazes. Has it all moved back underground now, or is Big Music hiding all of the good stuff somewhere?
June 8th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
“… p2p moto should be download, sample, buy (if the price is right) or delete …”
Quite right. If you read some of the .nfo files created by old school release crews you will find that they say the same thing. If you like what you see, go buy the real thing and support the creator, after all, they (the cracking groups) did.
I actually squirted a little irn-bru out my nose when I discovered my semi-incoherent rant on the front page of this here hallowed site! Thanks for the honour, Jon. And cheers to you readers for the props! I feel all fuzzy inside : D
The length of my post was also a bit of a suprise, I must’ve been really incensed about the whole thing to stay focused (kinda) for long enough to write it!
Keep on fighting the good fight people, don’t let those megalomaniacs get you down! Even if they try to sue the drawers off your dear old granny.
Peace and P2P
Donald “try before you buy” Hollybags
June 9th, 2005 at 4:16 am
I much agree with this “try before you buy”. I would not buy a car that way, I have serious troubles with purchasing on the net because I can’t turn it over in my hands and look at the quality, and there are far to many out there that want to misrepresent the product as something it is not.
Major music and media have been doing this forever it seems. Building up the product with hype. Once you got it you find it wasn’t near what it was built up to be. But they got your money for you to find that out. The Hulk is one of the best examples I can think of that fell on its face because word got out ahead of time of just how sorry a film it was. That for the most part didn’t come from the critics, it came from the p2p users that posted their opinions on the net. The film bombed to say the least, as it should have, and it left the industry with another axe to grind. No one guarrented that if major music or media make a product it entitles them to a profit. Were it any other product that you could examine in the store and turn it over and look at the quality, I suspect that these industries would do far better at the quality aspect. They are so used to making a B grade copycat version and hyping it as the prima donna theme and raking in the dough as a result of a misinformed public buying the hype as well as the product. That only goes so far before the people start looking at the product and waiting to see if it is worth it from someone else that spent the money to see.
With the steady increase in prices it has reached the point that people are backing up yet again to make a judgement pick between choices. Since they are sceptical on both to begin with, many look, think, and walk. They wait till they have tried it, heard of it from someone else, or just simply drop the idea all together for something a bit more substancial such as a game.
None of these win the majors any respect and far less income in the pocket. Those mega-corporations have now an image problem. One that sue ‘em all hasn’t done anything to improve. Truely the customer is king and is telling them they don’t have it right. Even the courts seem to be echoing this by turning aside many of the cases with rulings that aren’t exactly what the majors wanted, wished, or sought.