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

To: Rande Is who wrote (55923)	1/25/2003 12:17:45 AM
From: TraderXx	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57584

Hi Rande..I ran across your post detailing your feelings about the current crisis within the music industry concerning online downloads and loss of revenue from such action. But I thought I could give you a couple of thoughts of my own: I understand your concern with regard to an artist and his/her own creation and work and they should be rewarded for the talent that they may possess. But I see this situation as more of a sign of HUGE discontent and product that the major record companies spew out to the masses. BY this I mean that for years record companies have produced, along with their artists, a product such as a CD recording that at MINIMAL contained maybe 2 or 3 decent songs on a CD that the record companies were asking the average joe to pay a whopping $16.95. Of course there were the exceptional CD's that had produced more good songs and one would feel that one had recieved something of value for their money. I guess you can see where my argument is leading. For record companies after all this time to proclaim that they aren't receiving their due from their product is just really ironic being that I feel they have been ripping off the average joe for YEARS! with inferiors products. AND...lets get into the reasons why they are charging so much money: Could it be that the recording industry is overcharging for a number of so called services such as recording & producing costs, as well as promising huge payoffs to marginal talent? DOn't forget to add the costs of the , as you say " managers, lawyers, limos, wardrobe, etc" who just increase overall costs of production of the CD. Now..whether the artist, himself gets screwed by the record company as well is another issue. It all kind of reminds me of the telcom industry years ago, companies like AT&T were charging me at times to call out of state something like $1.50 a minute just to call my mother. When I see now how much costs per minute have dropped and to think that for YEARS these criminals were making an insane amount of profit from us suckers, it makes me livid. They were ripping us off. With the advent of the internet, smaller competitive companies , etc they were forced to be competitive in the market. I know its not the same analogy, but it is in some ways. "Where does all this lead? Well, if the most creative people get sufficiently discouraged, they give up" Well...hardly. In many ways internet downloading has provided many artists to provide their music online that otherwise would not have had a chance of exposure. And why?....because the costs of production are way too high for a struggling artist to provide. It gives a struggling artist at least a chance of exposure and hopefully leads to recognition and a payoff. With your concerns of the commercialization of music nowadays I do believe you have a point. Record companies could issue and package anything to the masses AND be successful. But then you get into the subjectivity of what its "good" music and "bad" music...lol. If anything the internet gives an artist a way of exposing any type of music without any sort of influence or manipulation from a record company. Whats the solution? Like you said, its a complicated subject, but if they want to prevent downloaders from stealing music , they are going to have to provide a product at a reasonable price. To be honest with you, if I saw a CD more in the price range of around $10, I would probably be enticed to buy that "package" product and not go through the hassle of downloading CD's. Granted...they will never stop downloading music, but what they can do is give the consumer better alternatives. I hope I'm not rambling and that I have made at least SOME sort of sense <<gg>> Anyway...hope you didn't mind my thoughts. Thanks TraderXx