If you pirate music, you're downloading communism!

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 27 Mar 2009, at 06:29, Albert Bouchard wrote:
> Think about the billions of people who don't own CD players and  
> want their music. How are all the people who've worked hard to  
> create that music to get paid? I actually think that iTunes of  
> something of that sort is the future. it's simple enough to sample  
> some music for free on iTunes. I do, however, think they should be  
> lowering their price not raising it.


I think I tend to agree with Al -- though, firstly, we don't have to  
wonder whether people are becoming morally bankrupt; we already  
_know_ people are morally bankrupt.  Sure, there's an element in us  
that wants to "do the right thing", but we have all done plenty of  
things that we knew were wrong, that were a bad idea, that were  
illegal, etc.  Usually we've done those things because, for whatever  
other reasons we might have had, it seemed _easy_.

I think this is one of the keys to downloading music, either legally  
or illegally.  People want music (evidently).  And people want  
getting that music to be easy.  When it became easier to listen to  
music on CD than on cassette or vinyl, people rushed to buy CDs.   
When it became easier to download stuff than buy CDs, people started  
doing it.  The iTMS, whatever one thinks of it, proves that there is  
a market for selling downloads -- however, it's clearly not easy  
enough yet.  But I think if one convinces people that it is  
"easier" (and that's a concept that includes formats, and bit rates,  
and price points, and everything) to buy the music than steal it,  
then people will buy it.  What the music industry has failed to do is  
implement that easiness.

So everyone in the music industry has a right to be upset that people  
are downloading pirated music.  However, I think its a waste of time  
to try to halt downloading per se.  That ship has sailed.  That  
battle is over.  It's a lost cause to try to force people into using  
some delivery model that they don't want, since they will just find a  
new way to get what they want.  Napster got shut down, but bittorrent  
distribution arose; shut that down, and something else will come  
along.  No, the only hope for the music industry in terms of sales of  
recorded music -- for suits and artists alike (though, perhaps,  
particularly suits) -- is to find a way to get people to pay for  
downloadable music that isn't such pain in the ass as it currently  
is.  It needs to be cheaper and easier if it's going to compete.   
That's just a reality, and though everyone keeps repeating that  
truth, the music industry seems to remain a long way from doing  
something about it.

I _should_ be able to buy CD-quality (at least) downloads of anything  
I want, whenever I want, from wherever I want; the technology exists  
and my desire to access it exists.  It just hasn't been offered to  
me.  (And even for iTMS, with its expensive lossy files, I'm not in a  
country that iTMS supports anyway!)  I will never cease to find it  
bizarre how much time the music industry wrings its hands about  
piracy in contrast to how little time they spend trying to offer a  
functional alternative. %/

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/