The collapse of metal is imminent

[NocturnalSun]

according to ex-Limp Bizkit, now Eat The Day guitarist Wes Borland. I fuckin hate Limp Bizkit and Eat The Day, but what he said in this interview about file-sharing is VERY true pplz..... take a look and learn from it:

BORLAND: "The record industry is a mess because of it. Record labels are losing so much money due to downloading that many of the more interesting bands are being dropped or ignored and only 'sure things' are getting signed. Basically people don't understand that every cent that an artist takes from a label has to be paid back. It is literally like taking a loan from a bank. The artist ends up paying for everything. When you download music, you are stealing directly from that person that made the song that you are downloading. And it's forcing the 'banks' (record labels) to merge with each other, becoming larger, more confused monsters that are afraid of the future, and that's a creature that I don't want to be around. More Justin Timberlake's will be signed instead of Radiohead's. And some people are responsible with it. They check out a band online, and then go pay for the record if they like it, but there is, as you are well aware, an entire sub-culture of thieves, who never pay for anything anymore. It's these peoples fault that bands are sounding the same, and that MTV only plays top 40, along with lame TV shows. That is a direct result of stealing music. The demise and collapse of everything that is still good about music --- Keep it up, and you'll be able to watch it fall."

 

[hibernal_dream]

Wrong. The decline of music as a business is imminent. Since music will no longer be profitable, record labels will disintegrate to dust and only the artists dedicated to their art will continue producing music, and thus, no more Justin Timberlakes.

 

[all4dametal]

Sad but very true....metal will die if this keeps up. Too many people are too cheap to buy the album of their favourite bands or bands they like. I always have bought my favourite artist's albums in support of them. I've been guilty of downloading too, but I would only download song's to see if I liked a certain band. If I liked a band after downloading a few of their song's, I would go out and buy their record.

As much as I can't stand Limp Bizkit and Wes Borland.....Wes has a very good point and is worth listening to .....before metal dies from it's own fans.

 

[NocturnalSun]

yea, just take a look in the topic about "would you rather download songs or buy the cd". in there some pplz just blow off this whole fact and say "Fuck cd's. I'll never buy em, mp3's all the way!"

now ain't that some bullshit

 

[Niklas]

i do like to download a few tracks off an album before i buy it to check that it's alright... i dont burn them to cd though...

but in england cd's are so fuckin' expensive they're like:

£14-£17 thats 20-24 euro's thats $22-$27

 

[Metabop]

yea, just take a look in the topic about "would you rather download songs or buy the cd". in there some pplz just blow off this whole fact and say "Fuck cd's. I'll never buy em, mp3's all the way!"

Yeah but that was only one person who said that, the vast majority of those that replied to that thread said they would rather buy the CD.

While I agree with the quote from Wes Borland to a degree it's not the whole picture. The industry is dying because the major labels are run by musical no-it-alls who think they know-what-the-public-wants. They invest massive resources into two dimensional, bubble gum music aimed at 5 to 12 year olds.

This type of music has a short life span. They blow a lot of money on the hype and hope to cream profits off the merchandising. They get it on radio because they pay the advertising budgets of the radio stations.

Virtually everyone I talk to is pissed off with the content on radio, especially here in the UK. The record buying public above the age of 12 are turning to other sources for their records.

Because they aren't investing in decent artists and taking the time to develop them they are dying. It's the same with any business, if you don't actually deliver a good service you eventually go under.

The thing with the internet that is accellerating this death is not so much the illegal downloading (theft) of the music (which I do not condone BTW), that has gone on since the cassette was invented anyway, it is the ease of access to alternative sources of music.

You no longer have to get albums from your local store. An independant label can now set up business on the internet and sell direct to the public. I think that is more of a threat to the majors than anything else, they are being bypassed. And that is why I think metal will NOT die.

Who among you think that a good metal band will not get an album out just because the major labels are gone? That's bullshit, you can't keep good musicians from making music.

They will keep recording albums because it's easy to do that nowdays. You don't need a massive budget to record a good quality album anymore. And if there are good albums there will be independant labels to release them over the internet. And as long as there are places like this forum people can let each other know about it.

Metal, Rock, Jazz etc. none of it's going to go away. Oh except for the above mentioned bubble gum music maybe, I hope that dies with the industry faggots who created it.

 

[Benzine]

i do like to download a few tracks off an album before i buy it to check that it's alright... i dont burn them to cd though...

but in england cd's are so fuckin' expensive they're like:

£14-£17 thats 20-24 euro's thats $22-$27

Yeah they are stupidy expensive. I buy albums when i have the money and use mp3s to see what a band is like and then get their CDs if i like them. If only CDs were £5, then i would buy every album i could think of.

 

[NocturnalSun]

here in America, prices have dropped to about $12.98 I believe, and if you buy it the day it comes out at some stores, you can get a discount to drop it to either $11.98 or sometimes $9.98. Americans do not have it bad, and that's why I, personally, hate those here in America bitching about prices. We have it easy, even though good metal is hard to find still...

 

[JACKO]

i sometimes download an mp3 or two to get a taste of a band i havent heard of
if i like it a lot, i will probably buy it

 

[Terrifyer]

in Mexico the prices are betwen $17.5 and $20....

if the cds were as cheap as in US I would buy more...

 

[SculptedCold]

Metabop speaks truth. mp3 sharing does more good for metal in terms of sales in my opinion.......and I couldn't care less for the popular music 'industry', the sooner it falls, the better. Then it can be rebuilt with sense.

 

[iAMtheblackwizards]

And as ive said many times over, if it werent for filesharing i would not have found out many of the bands i listen to. I saw a chart somewhere (i cant remember where it was or id post it) but while major label record sales have gone down, thats true, indie (meaning non RIAA) label sales have skyrocketed due to filesharing

 

[None_So_Vile]

everything is extortionate in the uk, its lame. I usually just download a few tracks by bands im interested in then i go out and buy their album(s). I think its wrong to never buy anything and just download all your music. Mabye if they lowered the prices of CD's worldwide, i mean me and my friend were chatting the other day and we reckon CD's should be about £8 at the most, not fucking £13-14 even £16-£17, companies like HMV seem to think that if a band is more obscure or whatever, they can charge more for it and they even put all album prices up by £1 at the start of this year which really takes the piss

 

[Chris Brooks]

Wow, hats off to Wes. I'm gaining more respect for that guy by the day. He's speaking from as someone in the industry, and an artist at that. I'll take his reasoning over some punk who rationalizes his/her stealing by pretending they're fighting for some noble cause by battling the labels that their favorite artists signed with because they wanted to make and album and wanted their fans to buy it.

 

[MRNot]

BORLAND: "The record industry is a mess because of it. Record labels are losing so much money due to downloading..."

I have little -evidence- to back up my theory, but I strongly suspect that no real loss is occurring due to filesharing. Loss is coming from crappy product and ridiculous pricing, combined with the continual repetitive signing & promotion of sound-alike bands. I submit that the vast majority of people who download and don't legitimately license music aren't going to be legitimately licensing music in the first place (so, show me where the loss of revenue is, in other words). Seriously... I'd still like to see or hear any report that definitively refutes this. They can't produce one, and I'm sure most artists speaking out against sharing are either completely uninformed or worse are being subsidized by the huge conglomerates to do so..

 

[MRNot]

..The industry is dying because the major labels are run by musical (know)-it-alls who think they know-what-the-public-wants. They invest massive resources into two dimensional, bubble gum music aimed at 5 to 12 year olds.

Thank you, Metabop!!! Everything he said, plus what I said, though his was more informative and less radically theoretical than mine..

But think about it.. The record industry cannot admit to what Metabop says as the real problem, and it's much easier and more inflammatory (ergo, exciting and interesting) to take the course they've chosen and blame a "threat" of the impact of illegal behavior that's gone on since the dawn of recorded music.

/off my soapbox../

 

[MRNot]

here in America, prices have dropped to about $12.98 I believe.. We have it easy, even though good metal is hard to find still...

I generally don't bitch about pricess, simply because I know where to go to buy my music, but if I didn't have the internet, I *guarantee* you I wouldn't be getting the music I like for under $20 per CD.. Once every few months, I go to Tower nearby or BestBuy just to reacquaint myself with brick & mortar shopping. In BestBuy, you just can't find shit, but in Tower, when you find it, it's always a good $1.00 to $3.00 more expensive than anything popular that isn't on sale. Now, if you want to buy something by one of the few industry darlings in the nu-metal category, surely you will not be gouged too badly, but who wants to buy that crap?

 

[MRNot]

..companies like HMV seem to think that if a band is more obscure or whatever, they can charge more for it..

Actually, I think it has more to do with guaranteed fewer sales from an unkown, so they compensate by charging more to recoup costs to allow that shelf space to be occupied. Of course, I don't agree with that logic and figure if they marked the product at a more reasonable price for an unkown, it's going to be more likely to sell in the first place, cutting down on an outlay of overhead.. Now, why this sort of logic occurs to a layman and not to someone actually in the business, I'll never understand...

 

[Episteme]

i do like to download a few tracks off an album before i buy it to check that it's alright... i dont burn them to cd though...

but in england cd's are so fuckin' expensive they're like:

£14-£17 thats 20-24 euro's thats $22-$27

If you think that's expensive, check out Australian prices, it's usually $36 for obscure metal CDs

 

[Benzine]

If you think that's expensive, check out Australian prices, it's usually $36 for obscure metal CDs

Your CDs may be expensive but its a small price to pay for getting 'neighbours' months before us brits