Illegal downloading

GiggsysGirl

Toxic Frogger
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Whilst finally getting around to clearing out my stuff that's been festering in the garage, I found a box of about a hundred cassette tapes. Tapes of a good couple of decades worth of stuff I recorded off mates or the radio. Now, that was never legal yet I don't know anyone who didn't do it.

So are record companies really losing more money these days through illegal downloading than they did in the days of taping?
 
In a word, yes. Rates of music piracy are a lot higher through downloading. Though the record companies have to take a fair portion of the blame themselves though; their approach towards the internet was totally wrong. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity, they treated it as a threat and are still paying for that tactical mistake.

The same thing happened back in the early part of the last century with radio. Instead of seeing radio as a potentially great marketing tool, the initial reaction of the recording industry was to view is as a threat. "Who is going to pay for music when they can hear it for free on the radio?", they reasoned.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
In a word, yes. Rates of music piracy are a lot higher through downloading. Though the record companies have to take a fair portion of the blame themselves though; their approach towards the internet was totally wrong. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity, they treated it as a threat and are still paying for that tactical mistake.

The same thing happened back in the early part of the last century with radio. Instead of seeing radio as a potentially great marketing tool, the initial reaction of the recording industry was to view is as a threat. "Who is going to pay for music when they can hear it for free on the radio?", they reasoned.
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Agreed.

TBH record companies deserve all they get, they've been screwing recording artists and bands for decades.

I'd rather support a band as directly as I can either by paying for their direct downloads or paying to see them live, both of which give the bands far greater revenue than the pittance they get from RC's for album sales.
 
People would still make music if they got no money for it. All that would happen is the money grabbing clingers on would disappear, and MTV wouldn't exist.

Who cares how much money they lose?
 
noodlehair said:
People would still make music if they got no money for it. All that would happen is the money grabbing clingers on would disappear, and MTV wouldn't exist.

Who cares how much money they lose?
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If people cannot make a living from making music, then they can't devote their life to unless they are already wealthy. Protecting artist's copyrights is very important in my opinion.
 
If you cut out all the middle men, they could make more than enough to live on without even taking record sales into account.
 
GiggsysGirl said:
Whilst finally getting around to clearing out my stuff that's been festering in the garage, I found a box of about a hundred cassette tapes. Tapes of a good couple of decades worth of stuff I recorded off mates or the radio. Now, that was never legal yet I don't know anyone who didn't do it.

So are record companies really losing more money these days through illegal downloading than they did in the days of taping?
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It was legal as long as you didn't record to sell.
 
noodlehair said:
If you cut out all the middle men, they could make more than enough to live on without even taking record sales into account.
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Unfortunately, like any business venture, making a professional quality record (for 'rock' genres at least) requires capital investment. As does pressing the record, marketing it and distributing it. These costs are less for online-only releases, but significant capital is still needed. Whoever puts up the capital (in this case record companies) wants to see a return on their investment.

Even with regards to touring, if this is to be anything substantial it requires money. Equipment, roadcrew, marketing, venue costs etc. Again, someone has to stump up the cash.

I speak as a bitter failed musician.
 
Slighty veering off the topic but do you think they will ever actually prosecute people who have illegally downloaded songs, I'd say that figure would be about 65-75% of long-term internet users.
 
I have some great tunes on tape! As spinoza said I don't think that is illegal as its coming from the radio and you are using it for personal use.

I think its fair to say its more common now though. Its easy to access it all now within a few clicks and put it onto an mp3 player with a few more.

There was talk of ISP's being pushed to ban a household/person from the internet if they were downloading illegally (not just music). However, this didn't really get any support - its a bit of a rubbish idea really.

I doubt a person will get punished for downloading a few songs here and there, its far too common. Some people who are the backbone to it and have millions of songs and let others download them will probably continue to get punished though - if there is enough evidence to convict them.

I don't really see what the alternatives are though. Its similar to anyone on here who streams a football game instead of paying £ to sky and setanta. Who is going to pay for something they can get for free?
 
In the words of Tommy Tiernan - "You can't be downloading that stuff for FREE!!!! We have Millionaires to protect!"


Their own fault though...but there are a couple websites coming out now with legal downloads but make you go through ads to get them
 
There's no actual proof that illegal downloading loses record companies money. Even if there was there is no way you could get banned from the internet for downloading music illegally, the ISPs would simply not ban millions of paying customers.
 
MikeUpNorth said:
Unfortunately, like any business venture, making a professional quality record (for 'rock' genres at least) requires capital investment. As does pressing the record, marketing it and distributing it. These costs are less for online-only releases, but significant capital is still needed. Whoever puts up the capital (in this case record companies) wants to see a return on their investment.

Even with regards to touring, if this is to be anything substantial it requires money. Equipment, roadcrew, marketing, venue costs etc. Again, someone has to stump up the cash.

I speak as a bitter failed musician.
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That's as it is now yes, but say if you just took the music industry away, I mean, just took all of it away, everything, and started over...people would still make music, people would still listen to music, and people would still be fascinated by it.

Even more so with the internet these days. You don't have to be wealthy to pick up a guitar, record a song, and post it on myspace. and in fact, you'd probably be more interested in doing so in order that people can listen to it, rather than seeing if anyone would want to pay you any money.

People would still find ways to listen to good bands, and bands would still find ways to play gigs, go on tours etc.

Music comes from what's inside a person's head, and so isn't something that's dependant on money, and as such the music industry doesn't have to be dependant on record sales.

Changes mean good in the long run. Least that's my feeling on it anyway
 
Legally you can make a backup of anything you own already, but yo ucan't sell it. Downloading without paying for it (from a legit source like i tunes, as opposed to some dodgy russian site) is unfortunately illegal.
 
I would be interesting to know the exact figures in this debate:

-how big are the royalties that artists get?
-how much return on investment do these record labels make?
-how much do independent labels make?

It's hard to feel sorry for the record labels when they charge outrageous sums for a cd with 2 good songs...
 
Christofaux said:
Im amazed itunes makes money at all really.
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Unbundling is a service people pay for. Same reason why low cost airlines make money. You pay to buy only the stuff you want.

If you're wondering why iTunes makes money when the stuff they sell is available all over the internet, it's because it guarantees downloads that are virus / trojan-free with decent encoding quality.
 
only legal thing ive got on the computer is the hardware.
 
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