LMAO... $10 says they don't catch a clue for another year...

"Hmmmm... our sales are down. Who can we blame? PIRATES!! (*rabble, rabble, rabble*)

Let's call up the RIAA and crack the whip!"

Heaven forbid they learn to (*gasp*) CHANGE with the times!!

It's Darwinism at its finest; they either need to evolve or die off to make way for others who will embrace and support digital media consumers.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't illegally download music. Justify it all you want, but if you don't own it, it's stealing and I have no problem with people getting into trouble for stealing.

That being said, the heavy handed actions of the RIAA and the ridiculously high fines people are forced to pay have so soured me on the music industry that I haven't bought a new CD in years. That's not to say my music collection hasn't grown in that time. but if I want something, I buy used. That way I stay legal, and they get none of my money.

So what's my point? HA! HA! Warner! You're losing money? Serves you right!

Poor 'ol Warner Music. They only made $5 million PROFIT.

Step 1: Steal Underpants (Underpants = Music)
Step 2: ???
Step 3: 5 Million in PROFIT!!!

@Bender: I don't mean to justify illegal downloads, I always believe people should vote with their wallets, but in this case, it's not like you can go to SOME other distributor easily to get the music you want.

Anyway, who OWNS music? According to the recording industry they do, anyone else, including some musicians, are just allowed to rent it in different formats :P

Maybe they should not churn out crap, overcharge for it and place garbage DRM all over it?

No it's gotta be pirates.

when will they learn... [www.demonbaby.com]

Wasn't meaning to justify or even glorify music piracy. I merely meant to say that instead of analyzing the true reason they're losing money (online sales), they will blame music pirates downloading it for free. Instead of making the music readily available piecemeal from an online store at a reasonable price, they continue to churn out crappy CD's prone to scratching. "Only want a track? Sorry! Gotta buy the whole CD!!" (*stick tongue out*)

They seriously need to reinvent the music industry or these giants will come crashing down. If they don't do it soon, artists will all go independent and stick their collective middle fingers up into the air at them.

Look at what Trent Reznor has done already. He's totally independent and won't deal with a record label again. Of course, he doesn't HAVE to at this stage of his career, but he's a beacon of light in these foamy waters that have become the music industry.

I haven't bought a music CD in 4 years and don't plan on buying one again ever unless it's direct from an artist. I have gotten to where I refuse to pay a music label directly anymore. I'd rather pay a much more reasonable price for an individual track than a crappy CD at an outrageous price for two good songs and a mediocre one (which is about average for any mass-produced CD release).

Sorry for the diatribe, just voicing what's in my head. Guess that last cup of coffee may have been too much.

(*runs back to coding*)

Find me a whole album that's worth buying and I'm sure your sales will go up. They may as well just stop producing the crap. Just put out the 3 good songs. Save a bunch on production cost and they'll have more money in their pockets.

Maybe people were put off buying music because they don't like being considered thieves. Call me crazy, but I just don't think that suing one's customers is a well-thought out business plan.

@BigDanInTX: You drink coffee in the afternoon?

I tell my co-workers I'm going for coffee, but more often than not, I find a stiff Stoli & 7 goes better in the afternoon. Of course, I'm not a coder.

all i really gotto say is lower prices, i bet if they lowered all single disc cd prices to 5 for one month there profits would be higher than they were in the past 3 years.

also time to drop some of the worthless acts. take a look at sony if you aint racking in money for them in 2 cd's time you gone

This is not about pirating. As much as they want you to think it is. They have just as much trouble with the Trent Reznors of the world as they do with "pirates". Either way, they don't get the money they're used to getting from music sales. And we all know that No money and No power make the big four go crazy.

Profit would be the money the company made after all costs including salaries. I bet the CEO makes millions a year by himself. If the CEO were to take a paycut I bet they could make up that 7 million pretty easy. Although the CEO would have to eak out a meager existence on just maybe 1 million a year. I don't know if I could live on just a million. /sarcasm

I still like my model for online digital sales better than anything out there.

128kb/s = $.13 per min. of music complete download.

256kb/s = $.26 per min. of music complete download.

512kb/s for 5.1 (5 channels plus lfe)= $.51 x 3 = $1.53 per min. of music complete download.

Of course no drm. The artist can get the last number as pay. Using 128kb/s to illustrate the artist would be paid $.12 for a 4 minute song x 1 million paid downloads thats $120,000.00 for one song. The rest goes to costs and the label and paying everyone else for one song that's $400,000.00 which is plenty if an artist is good enough for people to buy 10 of their song's that would equal a buttload of money and it would be cheap enough so people won't mind paying to download a few files.

@demonwolf: interesting. but get ready for lots of 10 minute "extended mix" for every track.

-Music industry turns to RIAA because of downturn in profits because of illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

-RIAA turns to lawsuits to intimidate their customer base to pay for music.

-Customer base revolts, no longer wanting to support the music industry and buys used cds whenever possible hitting the music industry in the pocketbook so they will call off the dogs.

-RIAA says downturn in music profits is because of pirating copyrighted material.

Nobody can win here.

The nerdherd around here on Gizmodo over-analyzes all these RIAA-related posts in all the wrong ways.

Honestly, America is NOT 'revolting' against some corporate giant by stealing music.

America just really does not care.

Piracy might be totally annihilating the music industry, chopping into pieces and throwing it away, but until the whole thing falls apart, it definitely won't stop.

It's a long standing tradition in human history - don't change til it's totally ruined.

The "stop churning out crap" argument is just about as ignorant and blindsided of a thing to say as any on the argument. The quantity of terrible music is a cycle that's being perpetuated BY the lack of money caused by piracy because there's no money to develop artists anymore.

Not to mention we have a completely deadbeat, disgusting and piggish American culture that is perfectly content spending money on artists like Nickelback, Daughtry, Breaking Benjamin and Hinder.

It's either that or Hannah Montana and ringtone rappers.

The same culture that lines up to see SAW IV and makes it get more than $60 million in two weeks at the box office.

@satan gave me a taco: Hey man, even the gnomes have a song!

Did they license the rights for the intertubes distribution?

@twoohfour: How can you say that crap music exists because they don't spend enough on artist development and mention Hannah Montana in the same post?

Hannah Montana artist development expenditures:
-Voice-correction synthesizer on every sung note of every track.
-Develop TV show to hype albums.
-The entire force of Disney's theme parks, TV channels, record labels, owned artist cross-promotions, etc.
-However much her dad paid in bribes to get anyone to give her a shot in the first place.

Exactly how much more should they spend before they get a decent artist out of the deal?

@twoohfour:

I doubt that piracy is cutting into the funds of the big four so much that they are now unable to 'develop' quailty artists/bands.
The real problem the majors have is that the darn internet has given people the abilty to discover better acts/bands. Large segments of the population are now discovering that what is being forced fed by the majors through TV,radio,print is, for the most part, crap. The major labels are losing control of what people are listening to, and this scares them more than some undergrad on a P2P.

@Marty200: Well, that's all up to personal taste, Fall Out Boy is great to their fanbase, and isn't bad to most casual listeners either. I think anyone who listens to, or creates techno should be shot on sight, but that's my personal taste.

EMI's new owners are considering cutting funding to the RIAA and other industry trade groups as part of their "focus on efficiencies and savings".

[www.reuters.com]

The snake has clearly started consuming itself.

It is funny how everyone is picking on the music industry. There is a very simple answer to these issues but it will require consumers to be moral, honest, and show some restraint. If you don't want to pay for the music, don't buy it. It is that simple. If you don't like 50 don't listen. If you don't like Radiohead, don't buy it. It is simple. If you don't like the resolution on a TV you don't steal it do you? Know you show restraint and wait until you find the TV that you want.

And why are you shitting on musicians for making money. Everyone wants to make money and they way they do it by...wait...making music. So if they make enough money to buy what the fuck they want, they should be able to buy what they want. I swear it pisses me off every time people justify STEALING music because they are already rich. That is like stealing software. Or someone stealing Gizmodo's content. All you would piss a fire and shit brimstone if you found out another website was posting identical articles on the internet and getting paid for it like it was there own.

I will fall back. This can go on forever. The bottom like is if you don't like it, don't buy it. Stealing it is not going to make you like it. Pay for it. Musicians spend real money, just like you and they should be treated with the same respect for their services as you expect for yours.

Yeah they make lots of money, but so does Warren Buffet and your not stealing his intellectual property. You know why because it is not as easy and they would throw your punk ass in jail. So don't complain when you get caught, or when some else gets caught.

A thief is a thief, whether you steal a song or you steal the hope diamond.

Chuuuuuuuuuurch.

I would go back and correct any grammar or spelling mistakes, but I care about as much as you care about what I just wrote.

@twoohfour: you had me until "BY the lack of money caused by piracy because there's no money to develop artists anymore."
Develop as in fixing mediocre talent with audio processing? The labels are there not to make the music but to sell it ( and funding production, which until recently was necessary. Now digital recording is cheaper than the instruments) Also I don't consider the american culture "piggish" because they spend their money on music I don't like.

I see PROFITS are down - I didn't read that Warner's sales were down - maybe they'd make more money if they spent lest money on lawyers.

@kahri et. al:

Develop as in this:

In the 60s, 70s, even 80s and into the 90s (prior to the file-sharing revolution), major labels had the ability to truly develop artists.

What does that really mean?

That means they could hold out for more than one good record. If an artist had potential, some kids that didn't quite know what they were doing yet but with the proper care and fostering could be the Beatles, were taken care of.

They could release a few albums that sold nearly nothing and still be held onto, because the funding was there to wait for their development.

Music is not a commodity like it's become. It's not as we now think of it is with, to use the Hannah Montana example, some garbage created by someone as part of a very seriously marketed business plan towards a demographic.

Music is an art form that requires time, care, experience, life, love and viewpoints to truly grow.

Nowadays, with budgets trim, A&R reps get thrown off all the time. If an A&R guy has 4 artists signed to his label through him, and 2 or 3 of them have yet to produce huge profit numbers for the company, he'll get fired.

Simple as that.

And just like that, the artists get shuffled to the bottom of some other A&R guys priority list, and are now signed onto a record label that will probably never do anything for them again.

@MikeBahooski: ABSOLUTELY piracy is. Look up IFPI statistics on record sales over the past 10 years.

Or talk to anybody in the industry.

50,000 albums selling in this day and age is considered pretty good.

50,000 albums was an absolute joke 30 years ago.

The only albums that go platinum (sell 1million or more) now (with some exceptions) are either tweenie-bopper disney artists, Kanye West, or re-mastered U2 albums and the like.