Who here actually still buys CD's?

[Misanthrope]

wtf are you talking about, would you want to work for free? since when is any art free? painters sell their paintings, writers sell their books and yet you want in many cases already struggling musicians to work for free just so you can be a cheapskate and not pay for your cd, and what music company is going to take a band on, pay for recording, editing, publishing, distribution, advertising for no gain? you sir are an idealistic fo0l! in your world we would have a handful of amateur bands without enough money to tour or make professionally produced albums

If you are truly an artist you cannot expect to make a living out of it. A painter who wants to make a living out of his paints is better off painting building walls, a musician that wants to make a living out of his music is better of beying the guitar player for britney spears. You do not get art, you do not get what a person who wishes to express himself and share it with the rest of the world really wants. Any true artist would always look for that first, making a profit is either a nice casuality or more likely a second career to support himself. It is not an excuse if i ever get a record deal i would make shure that the contract says i could actually encourage mp3 from the cds or the ability to make tracks avaible exclusively in mp3. If you ever pay for a record is because you want the record company to make tours granted, but is a bussiness and you just take what you need from the bussiness you do not buy 10 cars at year to make the engineers happy even knowing you only need 1 or 2 cars and can just rent the others.

 

[Sympozium]

Originally posted by Belial
Not to mention I have a "thing" for authenticity. I like having the actual CD with the cover art and stuff. It sort of gives validation to me as a fan of that particular artist. Also, if everyone held your attitude and just downloaded mp3s without buying CDs, the music industry as we know it would collapse, and there wouldn't be any new music.

I feel the same.

 

[General Zod]

Originally posted by hibernal_dream
Art should be free, and if the artist really was creating music purely for the art of it, then he would not allow his music to be restricted to people who had enough money to pay for it.

No offense, but this arguement doesn't hold water. It's twisted logic, that allows you to steal from these artists, and not feel guilty about it. Not being able to afford something, means that you either work harder to attain it, or decide that it's not worth having.

Originally posted by hibernal_dream
As for "supporting the band", well the band is not a business, and its doesn't need to be supported. I should think (hope) they are not making music for the money, although it would make sense to break even and not be losing money, which i seriously doubt Opeth has much chance of, considering their current popularity.

Are you joking? Every band is a business. Have you been to an Opeth show? They sell their t-shirts there. Why? To make money. They sell their CDs there. Why? To make money. Why do they even go out on tour in the first place? To make money. Why does every band tour with other bands? So that they can bring folks in, who don't currently listen to their music, and expose them to it. This way, they can increase the base of folks, who will pay to see their shows, pay to hear their CDs, and pay to wear their t-shirts. Why does Opeth have links on their official web site, to buy their merchandise online? To make money? Why is it, that if you go to any band's official web site, there is typically one or two partial songs from each of their CDs? Why is it that the band doesn't make the entire CD available for download, for free, in MP3 format? Because they want you to buy the CD, not give it to you for free. Hmmmm... sounds like business to me.

They are making music because they love to. But they are also making it because it pays the bills.

GZ

 

[musicholic]

It really burns me that people say they respect someones work but refuse to pay for it. That is stealing by my definition.

 

[Culture_AK47]

personally i download entire albums simply because i can't afford to pay for the albums. i'm 15 with no job and really i don't feel like missing out because i'm broke!!

just coz i can't afford to pay for albums doesn't mean i should be denied them. the bands that i truely love and think their music is really worth my money i will buy their CD's (eg. Opeth)

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

You claim that by buying a bands cd's you are supporting them, but do you realise the tiny amount that a band gets for every cd they sell? they get fuck all! If you really want to support a band you are better off buying reams and reams of tshirts, posters and attending all of their shows. That is where a band makes its money, not selling cds. The only one who gets rich from that is the record company.

I have downloaded and burned to cd all of Opeths albums, and I went to their show on Friday night in Dublin. I bought 2 longlseeve tshirts, 2 tshirts and 2 posters. that amounts to over £60, so I dont think I can ever be accused of not supporting the band.

On the other hand if, on the same day, instead of going to see Opeth I had gone out and bought all of their albums, they would have made less than a fiver out of it!

So thats my point, buying a bands cds isnt the best way to support your favourite band. Go to their shows, buys *lots* of merchandise, and headbang the night away!

 

[MacMoney]

Originally posted by hibernal_dream
If you do i have one question - WHY?

I mean with all this wonderful pirating and copyright-breaching technology (CD burners, audiogalaxy etc.) why in the world would you need to?

Just askin'

No offense but that sounded really, REALLY stupid.

Why don't you just steal the CDs from the store for a change?

I'm quite broke myself but I try to buy CDs with the small amount of money I have.

 

[Belial]

Originally posted by Bleakest Harvest
You claim that by buying a bands cd's you are supporting them, but do you realise the tiny amount that a band gets for every cd they sell? they get fuck all! If you really want to support a band you are better off buying reams and reams of tshirts, posters and attending all of their shows. That is where a band makes its money, not selling cds. The only one who gets rich from that is the record company.

I would like to see some proof of that assumption.

 

[MacMoney]

And a note to the fact that the record company gets most of the money:

Yeah, middlemen suck and the record company takes quite a huge cut of the money but the fact is that if some obscure bands, say Katatonia, Opeth or some other doesn't sell, it will be cut off and the label will focus more on bands that will sell (i.e. crappy copycat bands).

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

Well I cannot give you proof as such but I can say that I have read interviews with various bands, most notably Sepultura. When asked what they thought about the whole Mp3 thing, they said they didnt really mind as they werent making much money from selling cds anyway, that most of their money was made from plaing live and merchandise. Dont belive me if you dont want to but I believe it to be true a ive heard other bands say similar things.

 

[Wolff]

True indeed.

 

[General Zod]

Originally posted by Bleakest Harvest
...buying a bands cds isnt the best way to support your favourite band.

And sending Mikael and the boys a cash donation would be better than buying a t-shirt, but that's hardly the point. You can choose to look at it however you wish, but if you don't pay for an artist's work, you're stealing from that artist.

GZ

 

[General Zod]

Originally posted by Bleakest Harvest
Well I cannot give you proof as such but I can say that I have read interviews with various bands, most notably Sepultura. When asked what they thought about the whole Mp3 thing, they said they didnt really mind...

If this is true, this is most certainly the exception, and not the rule. 99% of the artists that I have read interviews with, are not happy about it. Schaffer (from Iced Earth) has come right out and said if you don't buy my music, you're f**king (his word, not mine) stealing it. And this is coming from someone who HATES his record label. Now, while everyone on this board may not me big Iced Earth fans (then again, maybe you are), I think Schaeffer has expressed what most artists feel.

GZ

 

[Duvall]

I'd like to think that Opeth are intelligent enough to be with a label that wouldn't drop them. Any record exec with a shred of musical knowledge would know how talented and valuable these guys are.

As for buying cds.. I don't have a huge collection, so I'm not collecting. I have broadband, Kazaa, and enough HD to download what I want.. but I still don't.

To me, owning a cd means I can listen to it on a good stereo system, not my computer speakers. It means I can bring it to work and listen to it there. It means I can slap it in my discman and listen to it while walking. It means I own something physical, not just some magnetic charge on a platter. The sound quality is better - mp3 compression is lossy.

I love my cds.. they go with me when I travel, and I know that wherever I am, I can put on some Opeth and feel at home.

I'd feel like a fool if I was here and didn't have any Opeth cds. I'd feel like fool calling myself a fan of a band whose cds I didn't own.

And again.. the sound quality is so much better. I'm sticking with my little plastic discs.

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

That is very true and i'm not saying its not stealing, I was just highlighting the fact that bands get paid a pittance for selling cds, and that the reals thiefs are the record labels themselves

 

[Misanthrope]

Are you joking? Every band is a business. Have you been to an Opeth show? They sell their t-shirts there. Why? To make money. They sell their CDs there. Why? To make money.

Are you so self absorbed and think the whole world thinks like you ? Can you even fucking read interviews with your beloved artists saying they do not make a dime out of it and they do it because they LIKE doing it? Almost all bands i know have said the same and if they did not say that they would be filthy bussiness like all mtv bands like you suggest, why would you not go listen to those bands ?.
Im sorry to brake it to you but not everything is about money, have a little vision by your logic a woman loves you and marries you because is doing a bussiness transaction leeching you out of money in exchange for sex now do you really think love does not exist in any married couple at all? do you think of your mother like that? i did not think so. I seriously doubt opeth are money whores that sell products, it would show in their music. There is love and there is art, and there is music bussiness but the day i consider myself a bussiness person i would personally shoot myself in the head in front of you ok? Stop wasting everyone's time with your stupid argument and stop insulting nice artist like Opeth

 

[MacMoney]

I'd like to think that Opeth are intelligent enough to be with a label that wouldn't drop them. Any record exec with a shred of musical knowledge would know how talented and valuable these guys are.

They will be dropped no matter what if they don't sell any albums. A label cannot publish albums with no sales. Well, they can but what's the point? It's like flushing your money down the drain since even though the boss of the label might like the music of Opeth and wanted to promote them there most probably are bands which CDs would be bought, which music he would like and would like to promote.

 

[moonchild]

while the profits that the artist gets from album sales may be small thats not the point, if the artist sells more cd's then the record company is going to have to pay the band more money to secure their next album, so in a way by buying a cd you ARE ulitmately making the band more money, not only from what they get from your purchase, but also what your purchase does to their total sales and hence their bargaining position, if many people make pirate cd's and dont bother paying for the album then the sales will be significantly less and hence to the record company it seems the band is unprofitable and not worth the risk of backing with their money, resulting in poorer production and distribution. Anyway i dont think i could call myself a fan of a band if i didnt own their albums, to burn albums to me seems to take something which is very special and cheapen it

 

[HellSpawn]

Originally posted by hibernal_dream
If you do i have one question - WHY?

I mean with all this wonderful pirating and copyright-breaching technology (CD burners, audiogalaxy etc.) why in the world would you need to?

Just askin'

if u ask me.. i think this is a rather silly question...
(btw. did not bother to red trough all the answers.. just went to answering myself )
back to the thing.. yeah this is a silly question.. for me it is.. 'cuz, ofcourse i bye CDs!!
why the hell copy it to a shity bruned CD! it looks bad and.. and.. and it smells! (ehh) lol
anyways, u have to suport the band! and by what THEY give out, not copying!
i got a cd collection of about 400 CDs and about 300 of them are pure metal and i dont got a single burned CD or not even any mp3s...
it takes all the feeling out of music..
so HELL YEAH, i still bye CDs

 

[Misanthrope]

while the profits that the artist gets from album sales may be small thats not the point, if the artist sells more cd's then the record company is going to have to pay the band more money to secure their next album, so in a way by buying a cd you ARE ulitmately making the band more money, not only from what they get from your purchase, but also what your purchase does to their total sales and hence their bargaining position, if many people make pirate cd's and dont bother paying for the album then the sales will be significantly less and hence to the record company it seems the band is unprofitable and not worth the risk of backing with their money, resulting in poorer production and distribution. Anyway i dont think i could call myself a fan of a band if i didnt own their albums, to burn albums to me seems to take something which is very special and cheapen it

so what instead of maybe 100 bucks at months 500 bucks at month? and those are way to high numbers. And also i suggest you try reading my arguments about how it is ok ( and the reason i do so ) to buy but is rather to support the record labels, yes they can seem greedy but they are bussiness after all and make it all possible for bands so if i cannot run my own record company and make it possible myself i will support the record comanies that make it possible. But is just...lets say silly ( im tired of sensitivity in not gonna use the s word ) to think it means something to the artist financially, it could mean something so that the artist can keep releasing stuff but that is really supporting the record label so they can do their business.