MP3s... has anyone stopped buying CDs?

[dorian gray]

you know and i know that you (and i) never sit down and listen to full albums back to back anymore.

I do this. With all new album purchases and preferably with headphones. Afterwards, I'll play them over speakers while doing stuff around the house, as long as no one else is here. I struggle with listening to music in any other format...Youtube, MySpace, whatever.com...I can't do it. I grew up in a pre-internet era I guess, where we actually had attention spans and it creates cognitive dissonance for me to watch a single video or listen to a single song. I don't really even listen to music in the car. There's so much ambient noise, I'd rather just listen to myself grow closer to death.

 

[Ars Magna]

There's so much ambient noise, I'd rather just listen to myself grow closer to death.

You've never been sexier.

 

[lurch70]

 

[lurch70]

 

[einride]

yeah i don't know how governments and lobbyist organizations all round the world get away with calling copyright infringement "theft", it's just not right

it feels like a nerdy nitpick thing to say but it's actually not, it's calling one thing another for sheer propaganda reasons. "THEFT" sounds bad in the ears of the public and "COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT" sounds like vv

 

[General Zod]

And how often does "piracy" turn into $$$ as new audiences find your material and end up purchasing the legal product?

Not often enough. Sales are down. There's no denying that. Concert ticket sales are also down. There are bands that once could afford to survive solely on their music, who no longer can. While you and I might use downloads as a way of sampling and discovering new music, most do not.

As for my original post... I couldn't do it. I purchased 22 CDs on Saturday.

 

[Ellestin]

I purchased 22 CDs on Saturday.

you're my hero

 

[lurch70]

i think printing costs for packaging are to blame also for the still high cost of cd's, etc.

printers with all the new tech out there still have some sort of crazy pricing structure and I think overcharge like fuck for everything.

 

[lurch70]

holy megamansion

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/21/megaupload-founder-kim-dotcom-by-the-numbers/?hpt=hp_t3

 

[General Zod]

I have no doubt that piracy has some impact on sales, but how reliably can we say "sales are down" and correlate that directly with unpaid downloads?

How easily can we correlate it? Not easily at all. There's obviously no way to accurately track the cumulative impact of torrents, newsgroups, blogs, FTP sites, etc. However, can we safely assume piracy has had a significant impact on sales? I think we can.

Most industries facing a downturn in sales don't immediately blame the consumer or attempt to sue violators out of existence.

True. But most industries aren't in a position where consumers have 24x7, immediate access, to their products, for free, often before those products are available for sale in the market.

Valve's Gabe Newell said this about video game piracy and the industry: I think the entertainment industry needs to look at itself, its product, and its business model before it blames piracy for the root of its financial troubles and going to war against would-be consumers. Right now it is fighting a battle it honestly can't expect to win, shutting down the internet in a move to prevent copyright infringement is like napalming a rainforest to weed out a handful of guerrillas.

Obviously SOPA was overkill. And clearly the record industry needs to figure out how to restructure itself. But arguing that piracy hasn't played a big part in the decline of the music industry seems to ignore the obvious.

 

[Hell Mike]

industry

This word is why it isn't a problem.
Good metal music these days isn't very closely connected to the music INDUSTRY.

 

[General Zod]

Good metal music these days isn't very closely connected to the music INDUSTRY.

Mostly, I would agree.

 

[lurch70]

interesting post regarding vinyl production ...

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2012/03/and-vinyls-for-all/

 

[einride]

interesting post regarding vinyl production ...

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2012/03/and-vinyls-for-all/

the article is about making vinyl records with 3d printers. well, okay, cool idea. BUT: by using a printer that has finite resolution, you are effectively annihilating the ANALOG ADVANTAGE, i.e. what used to be a discrete wave is now "sampled" again. audiophiles will go bonkers.



not that it matters either way because every vinyl these days is mastered from a digital source