Lately theres been alot about downloading music and other things off the internet for free... i was just wondering wat oher people thought about the whole deal...

Much as I feel copyright material should not be downloaded for free, I also feel strongly about being ripped off by the music companies. In the UK here a good CD can easily cost £14 or more thats roughly $25. What a RIP OFF!!

The music companies wonder why everybody is turning to free but illegal downloads. When will they understand, that if they lower their prices things will be OK. I also object to this new technology that does not allow you to play CD's on your computer to prevent them from being copied. I for one have my speakers ETC wired up through my PC & no longer have access to a seperate music system.

I have nothing against protecting the artists but suing teenagers and keeping all hte money for themselves is not the way to do it.

UnknownDarknessX wrote:

I have nothing against protecting the artists.

Same here

UnknownDarknessX wrote:

but suing teenagers and keeping all hte money for themselves is not the way to do it.

Indeed, I too...like to downloads music off the net to to listen my fav. artists.

You know, with most softwares, you have the opportulity to "try before you buy" in terms demo-ware, or limited feature-ware, or time limited-ware.

Why can't the music industry follow suit, using the internet as a vehicle for future sales instead of treating it as a nuclear threat?

If the money went to the artist I wouldn’t have a problem with the price. The record companies have gotten me three times over. First I bought albums (that’s vinyl for you guys that don’t remember LP's) then cassettes, and then they start in the CD's. Hell how many times do I have to pay for the same music over, and over, and over. But the Artist get very little or nothing, the execs in their big houses and fancy cars. I aint going to make some fat cat even fatter. I do support all labels that are artist owned and all indy labels. I was a photographer for 15 years before i got into IT and so I have a good grasp on rights and the value of rights, and I know from selling images that the compines make big bucks of the little mans back, heck even the Big named artist if they dont have a good agent are taken it through the nose.
But hey, what do I know...
IMHO
RIP

what im saying is that i think its OK

I use napster when they went legal so did I

Okay, I could write a book on this, so I'll try to make one basic point. I must preface this by saying that my career was in the music business. I was a radio dj, concert promoter, band manager, club booker, talent scout, record producer, and I eventually had my own record label. So I know where the money goes. I will address the argument that money is being taken out of the hands of the artists.

NOT TRUE. Artists make little or no money from CD sales, in general. the money from retail sales goes to the record label, the retailer, the distributor, etc. Unless you are talking about an artist like Madonna or The Rolling Stones, no profit goes to the artist. So much for that argument. So, you may ask, how do the artists make money? From concert ticket sales and merchandising -- t-shirts and the like. The CD's are released and played on the radio or the videos on TV to encourage and entice people to go to the concerts and that is where the artists make their money.

Therefore, anything that gets the artists' music out to the public helps to create a buzz on the street and encourage concert ticket sales. That is why most artists are in favor of P2P. In fact, many artists today willingly put their music on the net for free for just that reason. Bands like The Grateful Dead in the past, Phish recently, and Dave Matthews today, have taping sections, encouraging bootlegging of concerts so that their fan base grows.

The other arguments, about copyrights and publishing rights and creative ownership etc., I am not addressing here. It just bothers me when music fans buy into the notion that P2P takes money out of the hands of the artists. No opinions here -- just the way the music business works.