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11/03/09
11/02/09
11/03/09
Demos and trailers are not enough to evaluate them. #torrents
11/02/09
If I were a record company, I would not see these numbers and consider support of piracy. If there's any group whose increased piracy habits hurt record companies' profits the most, it's these big music consumers.
Now, my personal opinion on the matter is that traditional record companies will die out and be replaced a model that has promotion companies as the driving monetary force behind the music industry while supporting a model that includes free music distribution. So I'm not apologist by any means. #torrents
11/01/09
11/02/09
Which is why any survey or study that seeks to describe "software" as a whole can only be-by default-wrong. #torrents
11/02/09
@TrollSlayer: Yeah, that's why I'm curious about it. I know I've bought a few movies that I really liked because I wanted to keep a hard copy in my personal collection (either after watching it "legitimately" or not), but that's only on certain rare cases. Most of the time I see a movie once and don't bother again with it. #torrents
11/01/09
As far as I can tell, they surveyed 1000 people from 16 to 50 with internet access and then asked if they downloaded music illegally. 1 in 10 said "yes," and, apparently, those 10% spend £77 per year on music, compared to, presumably, £44 per year for the others. Which all begs the question of how many of those other 900 people actually acquired *any* music in the past year.
The other oddity is that if you run the averages, it means that out of the 1000 people represented, they averaged £47.3 year on music. That seems rather strange, given that I've read elsewhere that the average person in the UK spends £67 per year on music. You could therefore argue that the average person in the UK with internet access spends £20 per year less on music than those without.
It would seem to me that the results would be much more relevant if they surveyed people who purported to be music fans. Just sayin' that reading this article and concluding that pirates are the bread and butter of the music industry is kind of horse hockey. #torrents
11/02/09
But good luck convincing lawmakers and courts that people are as simple, and societies of people so straightforward as their laws would like them to be. #torrents
11/01/09
If that is piracy, so be it. Send in the RIAA. #torrents
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/01/09
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11/01/09
The labels raped and pillaged recording sales long ago. Remember kids, music piracy doesn't hurt the artist, especially if you decide to go to their show based on the music you pirated, it only hurts the label, and unless your mom works at a label you shouldn't shed any tears.
Combine this with the fact that it is becoming more and more affordable for bands to produce and distribute their music themselves, and well... Maybe it doesn't make sense for labels to continue existing in their current form much longer. #torrents
11/03/09
It's a myth that music piracy hurts the labels and not the artists. #torrents
11/03/09
That's like saying it turns out actors only get 4% of the budget of a movie - the rest goes to cameramen, producers, directors, gaffers, etc.
It costs money to make an album. If an album can't recoup its costs cause even though people love it, they don't pay for it, it can't get made.
Plus, if you're a band, 4% lets you earn a living from your music rather than work in Starbucks. #torrents
11/03/09
11/01/09
most pirating is re-acquiring cd music that was stolen out of your car years ago.... at least in my case... #torrents
11/01/09
11/01/09
11/01/09
I mean, a true music junky would need his fix no matter what the price, right?
And the idea that file sharing helps them "discover" more music to buy seems to be an assumption without any facts to back it up.
11/01/09
If I see previews for a movie that looks visually compelling but based on a funky premise or something like that, I'll snag a torrent and check it out. Likewise if it isn't very aesthetic, but looks interesting plot-wise. Usually, I don't make it all the way through the film before I decide whether or not I'll go see it in the theater. If I don't, I won't. But if I do, I'll usually shell out for it more than once. It's as simple as that.
Previews can completely misconstrue the idea behind a film, making it look spectacular when it's lame, or totally interesting when it's really just a bunch of filler. I understand that that's the idea behind marketing (to make your product look more appealing than it actually is, within reason), and that's precisely why I won't trust previews or critics' reviews to help me decide on whether or not to go see the movie. I'd much rather give my money to a filmmaker I like and support than to one whose films I don't like, but who managed to craft a clever preview.
Why should music be any different? Why should I go out and buy an entire album based on two or three radio releases and 30-second-snippets? If I don't like the music, I'm going to wish I hadn't fractionally improved that artist's position, or reinforced that music label's strategy.
To me, that same principle applies in a much broader sense to many areas of what some may call "idealistic" capitalism; it's akin to saying that executive pay (or anyone else's, for that matter) should be directly tied to performance, no questions asked. #torrents
11/01/09
11/01/09
Five years ago: Gordonium is college, gainfully employed, and cash-buying as much music (if not more) as he illegally downloads via i2hub.
A year ago: Gordonium is in graduate school, earning a decent monthly stipend, also cash-buying as much music as he is torrenting.
Now: Gordonium is out of graduate school, unemployed, looking for a job, not buying any music at all (apologies, Porcupine Tree... soon!), AND not downloading ANYTHING.
Totally didn't catch that until just now. Fascinating. #torrents
11/01/09
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11/01/09