Good news! (well maybe)

EvilMonkeh

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
120
hmm
well i suppose its good, but personally i wont buy mp3s. i only buy music when i get a nice cd, not some file on my pc.
 

Scooba da Bass

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
500
I'm not really sure how I feel about this, whilst it's good that two semi well known artists are publicly going against the standard distribution deal, I'm not convinced that mp3 based distribution is the answer. Apple's iTune's Store has only just started breaking even and with at least 6 other download services planned in the US you'll see some companies getting burnt by this. The problem then is that to recoup the loss consumers are charged extra and recording artists are under een more pressure.
 

gmloki

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
634
I am encouraged by it to be honest. The more artist that follow can only be a good thing. Plus it stops the record industry(see Cartel) bleating on about the costs of marketing and it only makes so many pennies per year. Well boo fekkin hoo I say to the record industry
 

xane

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,695
In the old days, the Record Companies gave an artist access to production, manufacture, etc. Nowdays the only advantage they give is distribution and marketing, as most of the other things can be done to a very professional level by artists themselves.

The internet has eroded the distribution methods, simply because it is so cheap and most of the costs are paid by the customer (connection fees), the RIAA is simply a protection of the _distribution_ rights of companies, not artists.

I am pretty much convinced that most artists, especially those starting out, are quite happy to give away audio-only copy rights, simply because this is marketing in itself. The real money is made up in gigs, appearances, needle time and deals where the music is used as a soundtrack (films, adverts, games, etc).

With downloaded music, money can be made even on "free" songs, through adverts on the webpages or download software, in some cases I bet even more than if the songs were sold on physical media.

A minimum charge can also be enforced once an artist is established, using the "Stephen King" method, he would only produce the next chapter of his online book if he recieved enough money for the last one.

The download concept has also proved the album is dead now, after years of being forced to buy entire albums on CD, people can now pick and choose the tracks they like and artists don't have to spend wasted time coming up with "filler" tracks that are basically useless.
 

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