If I was a new band then I'd be thrilled to see people with my music - regardless of where it came from.
Yes it would be great for the first year or so as you want your work to be recognised. You think they'd be just as happy in 5yrs time if their music was hugely popular and they still had to have a regular day job to live?
Something people tend to forget, is that whilst it is true that only a small percentage of CD sales make it into the artists hands, a massive $5-$10 per CD is spent on marketing from which the artist benefits not only via CD sales but increased awareness and profile overall, which helps them earn a living live.
Now that the labels have no money they're forcing young artists to give up shares from the streams they do pay the rent with - live income and merchandise. So don't think for a minute that you're just stealing from the fat cat labels, you're stealing from the artists as well.
Don't know the details like you, but I can believe it. Yes the big music corp's make plenty of money off the music, but surely if the industry keeps being pirated at increasing rates, the artists are going to have to get lower pay cheques as well? Isn't that why they're reverting back to doing so much more tour work now than they were doing 15yrs back? I doube Bono, Madonna and all those artists that are vocal on the piracy issue are worried about Sony BMG's profits - they know sooner or later it's going to filter down to them and hurt their wallets.
The way I see it, shoe-shiners also *did* make a living from shining shoes. However times change and there's no point trying to fight the inevitable. Noone makes a living shining shoes anymore, and one day (soon), noone will make a living selling CDs.
Well, thanks
Selling CD's I agree with you - Sanity, BlockBuster, Virgin, EzyDVD etc are all struggling to turn a profit and are closing stores by the dozens. But selling music I wouldn't agree. If at some point in the future there is no money from selling
music (by whatever medium of the day) then it will certainly have to change things.
I'm by no means that knowledgeable on the subject - but I can understand where the 'theft' view point comes from (and yes I have downloaded music in the past). One of my girls today was saying how they never go to or buy movies any more. Now I wasn't about to get into it, but people need to ask themselves what this path will lead to. If an increasing proportion of the population stop paying for movies/music in one form or another (Box office, CD's, DVD's etc), how exactly will the industry survive long term?
Fast forward 20yrs and everyone is burning the latest Avatar sequel so much that the worldwide box office only brings in $500M (as opposed to the $2B+ so far with the movie) - do you really believe the industry can afford to spend the $400M (or whatever) it cost to make that film? And before someone comes back with the retort 'well they'll just have to learn to make movies for $30M again' - the smaller movies will feel the same effect. Yes they have smaller costs, but they also gross a lot less with the viewing community.
If you make a business non-viable, consequences have to result. The studios are all trying to find viable alternatives to compensate for the lost revenue, and luckily enough it's not having too bad an effect yet (from memory world wide box office revenue is still increasing), but what happens when the trend picks up pace?
Just some food for thought.