"Music sales are not affected by web piracy"

Shenshen

I would have to say that I have purchased a lot of music that I would never even have heard of if I hadn't pirated stuff just for the fun of it to see what it's like.

About 25% of the music I own I discovered that way, so I can see how pirating music would boost sales.

How on earth would I have stumbled over Angelique Kidjo, Emilie Simon, Les Colocs, Arik Brauer or The Arrogant Worms if I hadn't been able to get a few samples on pirating websites?
It's very hit and miss, for every artist I discover I like, there are 4 or 5 which I think are rubbish. If I had to pay for it all, I wouldn't be able to afford it.

Here Come The Pretzels

Im not sure that all bands make huge profits from touring.
It came to light recently that Slayer only keep 10% of the ticket prices between the four of them. Either they have a particularly sh1tty deal or touring might not be as lucrative as you imagine.

RayCon

Here Come The Pretzels wrote: »

Im not sure that all bands make huge profits from touring.
It came to light recently that Slayer only keep 10% of the ticket prices between the four of them. Either they have a particularly sh1tty deal or touring might not be as lucrative as you imagine.

I think the Slayer example is ever so slightly skewed by Mr. King and his ownership of various related "touring" businesses ...

King Catering
King Lighting
King Pyro's
King Haulage

etc etc ...

Einhard

Last year I wanted to use a specific Simpson's episode for an English class I was teaching. I tried searching for it online, and found the episode available to download. I entered my credit card details but was informed that it was only available to download in the US, and that the only other alternative was to purchase a hard copy of the entire series. Not having a clue about downloading, and in a bit of a hurry, I bought the DVD in town. But I went home that day, found out how to download, and have been doing it ever since.I find it hard to have sympathy for companies who cry that they are being fleeced when they have for so long tried to fleece us. The technology is there to allow cheap and easy downloads, yet so many companies seek to obstruct that in order to rip the customer off. And now, when the customer gets a bit of power and is fighting back, they scream blue murder. Well, too late companies. You tried to fook us, now we're having a little revenge.

kylith

I've downloaded music and, if I liked it, gone and bought it too. I try to buy from the band's website if I can.

I think that Kristen Hersh has the right idea; you pay a yearly subscription to her website and for this you get songs to download as they're recorded, hard copies, literature, and your name on the guestlist at her shows. I'd have no problem doing that for other bands, or for US tv channels.

gurramok

Buying songs for a euro supporting small artists trying to break through is fine, they need the money to climb the ladder, not established multi-millionaire artists.

Sky King

Einhard wrote: »

L The technology is there to allow cheap and easy downloads, yet so many companies seek to obstruct that in order to rip the customer off. And now, when the customer gets a bit of power and is fighting back, they scream blue murder. Well, too late companies. You tried to fook us, now we're having a little revenge.

Totally totally agree with this. The companies are clinging desparately to an anachronistic and totally flawed business model.

Take netflix for example. You log on and the range and quality is shyte, because for whatever copyright reason, the series or movie is not available in this area.

So the customer, not being able to pay for the service (for which the copyright owner would receive a royalty) just downloads it illegally instead.

I personally would happily pay monthly for netflix if they actually had stuff on it I wanted to watch. But they don't.

i wonder when they will cop on and get their act together.

Peregrinus

LordChessington wrote: »

That's not necessarily true. Whenever a concert is performed, the venue gets paid. The bar staff get paid. The promoter gets a fee. The security, sound engineer(s) and everyone working at the gig get paid. More often than not, the last people to get paid are the performers themselves, despite the whole event being centered around them.

Here Come The Pretzels wrote: »

Im not sure that all bands make huge profits from touring.
It came to light recently that Slayer only keep 10% of the ticket prices between the four of them. Either they have a particularly sh1tty deal or touring might not be as lucrative as you imagine.

Fair points. Perhaps what I should have said is that there is money to be made in concerts/touring, because you can charge margins there that you can’t charge when it comes to selling recorded music. Whether the profits from touring go to the performers, the promoters or someone else depends on the bargaining position and bargaining skills of the people concerned, but at least there can be large profits to be divided up, and people who go to concerts are providing significant revenue to the industry, one way or another. Whereas margins on recorded music are much thinner.

As an aside, the lion’s share of recorded music royalties goes not to performers but to composers (which is why Starr and Harrison got rich, but McCartney and Lennon got very, very, very rich). The division of royalties was fixed in the early twentieth century, when the main revenue stream for the music industry was from the sale of sheet music, and selling records was seen as mainly an adjunct to the sale of sheet music. We’ve now come almost back to a similar point, except that the sale of recorded music is an adjunct to the sale of concert tickets, merchandising and commercial licensing.

iamstop

I own a few thousand records. Never got any of them through piracy.

Ruudi_Mentari

why would I go and even download something now when I can probably stream it off youtube?!! is loco ese,

Prodigious

Because you might want to listen to it uncensored? Or without ads? Or on the go?