In the days before the internet, musicians had to rely on those over-paid labels to promote their work (so less potential).  Back then, many people would "copy" their music onto cassettes for their friends but, since this took some effort, this wasn't that big of a deal to the overall record sales.

Now musicians can get FAR more exposure thanks to the internet (more potential), but it's now even easier to get a copy of the work.

Sounds like nothing has really changed except for the scale (and there's more stuff out there to experience).

It all frightens me really.
 
I just want someone to hold me and tell me it'll be alright in the end.

craigb


In the days before the internet, musicians had to rely on those over-paid labels to promote their work (so less potential).  Back then, many people would "copy" their music onto cassettes for their friends but, since this took some effort, this wasn't that big of a deal to the overall record sales.

Now musicians can get FAR more exposure thanks to the internet (more potential), but it's now even easier to get a copy of the work.

Sounds like nothing has really changed except for the scale (and there's more stuff out there to experience).

Well, you had to know someone who owned the album. For someone like me, in a small town of 11 000 souls, you can imagine that the number of people I knew and w/ whom I shared musical interest was ridiculously low. 

In many case, I'd buy one album, you'd buy the next and so on, and we'd made tape for each others. Freeloaders who didn't have anything to trade were often excluded. But pretty much everybody I knew actually wanted to own originals too. 


If I grew up in that same town today, I'd have a pool of anonymous resources of millions of people to start my collection. Somebody out there has it for you to take, often conveniently packed as a single file containing the entire artist discography.


Worth mentioning that, in many countries, a portion of the $ coming from the sale of blank cassettes was injected back in the industry. It was the case in Canada. However, w/ the advent of MP3 players and such, no adjustments were made, so that's a direct lost right there. May seem trivial, but I've seen the numbers, and it has a very real impact. And once again in that case, it's not the suits upstairs who'll be negatively impacted first.


Same for airplay vs royalties. Since corporations have taken over, almost every radio station has been assimilated as a part of one of the two or three main networks, competing against each other. So in short, if network A plays your song, you most likely won't get any royalties from network B and C, and your exposure will be limited to the audience of that particular network. And you won't go on that particular popular TV show to sing your song because the competition owns that station.


And obviously,  the heads of those networks do have direct influence over the artist's music.


That's what happens when the same people own the papers, the radio stations, the TV stations and the record labels...

I still get royalties.  I have no idea what for anymore.  It's not much gramted but it actually went up by a third this year, which isn't bad since I've done nothing for the last 7 or 8 years and even longer since I actually recorded anything.
 
Same with some internet stuff I did, I wrote a high-level sql driver for a particular web based database language quite by accident really just because I was trying to get something I was using working, all of a sudden a few years after I'd forgotten about it I started recieving payments for it.  It ended up being a fair few £££.
 
Strange times indeed.

 
I was chatting to this Chinese bloke in the pub the other night.
 
I asked him what he does for a living and he said, "I'm a Pirate."
"Oh" I said, "So you sail on a boat."
 
"No" he replied, "I fry pranes."
 
 

Whatever hippie free the world destroy the capitalistic industry nonsense these bastards argue with, it doesn't take away the feeling of having your gut ripped out. Sure, it is to be expected that your stuff gets pirated and thankfully we get paid to play live so we don't face bankruptcy from doing this... Live shows and day jobs, that keeps us going. I have more than once asked my self if I can handle this kind of stuff though. At one point I quit playing music and started composing it for the money.

 
I hope you filed charges and attempted to sue??? It sounds like you just let it happen. You have to fight crime. Theft of intellectual property and copyright infringement are huge crimes.

Jonbouy
I'm all for people seeing that the consequences of wholesale theft costs us all in the end.  
 
I'm bored of the common emotional responses and indignation that often flares up around the subject. 
 

So what, Your coming off as a pushy jerk, if that's the message your shooting for, congrats, you've done it.


Your need to express your opinion on this subject is important, I get it, I also get where all the others are coming from.


Get off that dead horse and if it bothers you that some here express otherwise, don't shove it down their throats. It's kind of tyrannical in a sense.


There is my rant, I'll wait for your response.

I appreciate your observation.
 
I think you'll find I'm not in disagreement in calling piracy a crime if you can manage to see past the rhetoric you yourself have also just entered into.
 
My only point is that  I don't understand why if someone is sustaining the huge losses they claim then why continue to use the same methods of distribution and NOT expect their stuff to go AWOL?

Jonbouy


I appreciate your observation.

Thank you kind Sir.

CTStump

Jonbouy


I appreciate your observation.

Thank you kind Sir.

I hadn't finished...