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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KevinThompson who wrote (24307)	4/19/2000 12:23:00 PM
From: Rande Is	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57584

Kevin, the RECORD INDUSTRY has made "shooting oneself in the foot" an artform. BMG, UMG, Sony, etc. are all now scrambling to cut deals to get their catalogs encoded in whatever format they can now. A few years ago, they could have all gone with Liquid Audio. . .and banned together to fight piracy. [I sent out many warnings of what would come. . . see my Internet Music thread] But as they have spent millions trying to make up their mind on a digital encoding format. . . the pirates developed more sophisticated software that is now no longer traceable. This has sent chills through the hallways of the entire entertainment industry. . . movies, video gaming, music, etc. This latest software system downloads directly from users. . .making it nearly impossible to serve cease and desist orders, shut down, raid or otherwise arrest. And where college mainframes have been so overloaded with MP3 downloads that they have been rendered useless to the educational community. . . and have resorted to blocking all MP3 activity. . . this new system doesn't use mainframes. . . but rather direct downloads from various PCs around the world. So while I expect a flurry of deals to be cut with LQID, SFO and others . . . as they scramble to offer legal alternatives to MP3 piracy. . .I also expect their fight to be in vain. . . TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. Unfortunately, this bodes poorly for the entire entertainment biz. Many great artists we have grown to love, have been losing their recording contracts, now that it takes an unrealistic amount of record sales to break even. . . due to the amount of piracy. . . especially in the 15 to 25 age group. Pretty soon, we'll have to sift through thousands and thousands of hacks, wannabes, 2 bit garage bands and other losers before we can find something worth hearing. Some think it is long overdue. . .and that it levels the playing field for musicians everywhere. But I used to get sent hundreds of tapes each week for my review. . .and the rule was, "throw away 100% without listening. . .and you will be correct 99% of the time." And with the ease of making decent recordings. . . anyone thinking that since they have practiced an instrument for 6 months, and have played in a band for 2 months. . .they deserve to make a CD. Then with recordable DVDs becoming very affordable. . .Movies will be the next target of pirates. . . We may end up relying more and more on HBO & Showtime to pick our movies for us. . . and to radio [via net or airwaves] to sort out the decent from the despicable. Rande Is