Mp3 swaping: good or bad?
Jan. 24th, 2003 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amezriMore pondering on this subject when Mike sent me this article: Net Providers Must Aid in Piracy Fight
So, I asked my friend who works at a record company:
Me: do you know if mp3 swaping has damaged sales?
He: its destroyed singles sales
He: there is no market anymore for singles
He: and decreased sales last year by 11%
He: the year before that was 10%
He: so yes it has
Me: hm.
He: there have been a lot of lay offs
He: and a lot of crap music
Me: have there been any benefits?
Me: I heard somewhere that album sales were up
He: not really
He: there aren't much benefits
He: for smaller artists, yes
He: but with big artists that rely on singles for album sales, its hurt a lot
He: like eminem
He: probably could have sold 10 mil
He: instead of 7
Me: interesting... how about the artist? I had a big arguement with someone about whether or not the artist makes the majority of their profit from sales or touring.
He: touring is the big draw for the artist
Me: cause it takes so much to make an album, the label takes a lot of the profits
Me: on average, artists make about 2 bucks for each album sold
Me: if you are established, you work your deal up a little
He: no, everyone suffers
He: figure if an artist goes platinum now
He: they make 2 mil
He: 5 years ago they could have gone double easy
He: making 4 mil
He: plus any perks for making them sales
He: and of course the label takes the big hit
He: cause the artist gets money off appearances
He: radio play
He: offering the songs out to other projects
He: its not really good for anyone
Me: Hm. I see...
Me: so... having said all that.. are you for or against MP3 swaping? :D
He: kinda both
He: i believe you should pay for the mp3's
He: there's a lot of work that goes into one song, and people are gettin it for free
He: one label needs to establish a service where they offer their catalog for a fee per mp3
He: small fee
He: like a buck
He: or 50 cents
He: but i dont know how that'll work cause its already been introduced as being free
He: so its a tough call
Me: Well, I would gladly throw down a small subscription fee if that means I can download mid-high quality MP3s with no glitches and errors
Me: the pain in the ass about file sharing is you're not always sure the file is complete or if it's glitch free.. and that's a pain
He: exactly
He: i think also, to add to the appeal, you develop a faster way of downloading
He: you need something that will beat the freebies
Me: I agree with that.
Me: For example, I use livejournal, which is free and a lot of people stick with the free version, but I paid $100 for a permanent account
Me: because of the faster servers, customization abilities, and a few other perks
He: cause sure, i would like to get all the artwork and shit that comes with the cd, but i wont pay 15 bucks for CD anymore, thats just too much and most albums are wack
He: like if i got a bootleg of an album that i loved, i would pay the money for it cause its worth it
He: its like collecting dvds of your favorite movies
Me: Same here
Me: I bought the Two Towers Internet Soundtrack because it came with a load of extra artwork and was bound in leather.
Me: and I know that a lot of other people bought it, because it was sold out for 2 months
He: right
Me: this was despite the fact the soundtrack was out on the web about a week before it was out in stores
He: like with movies and shit, they got it on lock, its tough to download movies and the quality sucks
Me: hm.. not so much amymore... the DVD screeners are being ripped like candy
Me: but thats another story.. heh
He: word
So, I asked my friend who works at a record company:
Me: do you know if mp3 swaping has damaged sales?
He: its destroyed singles sales
He: there is no market anymore for singles
He: and decreased sales last year by 11%
He: the year before that was 10%
He: so yes it has
Me: hm.
He: there have been a lot of lay offs
He: and a lot of crap music
Me: have there been any benefits?
Me: I heard somewhere that album sales were up
He: not really
He: there aren't much benefits
He: for smaller artists, yes
He: but with big artists that rely on singles for album sales, its hurt a lot
He: like eminem
He: probably could have sold 10 mil
He: instead of 7
Me: interesting... how about the artist? I had a big arguement with someone about whether or not the artist makes the majority of their profit from sales or touring.
He: touring is the big draw for the artist
Me: cause it takes so much to make an album, the label takes a lot of the profits
Me: on average, artists make about 2 bucks for each album sold
Me: if you are established, you work your deal up a little
He: no, everyone suffers
He: figure if an artist goes platinum now
He: they make 2 mil
He: 5 years ago they could have gone double easy
He: making 4 mil
He: plus any perks for making them sales
He: and of course the label takes the big hit
He: cause the artist gets money off appearances
He: radio play
He: offering the songs out to other projects
He: its not really good for anyone
Me: Hm. I see...
Me: so... having said all that.. are you for or against MP3 swaping? :D
He: kinda both
He: i believe you should pay for the mp3's
He: there's a lot of work that goes into one song, and people are gettin it for free
He: one label needs to establish a service where they offer their catalog for a fee per mp3
He: small fee
He: like a buck
He: or 50 cents
He: but i dont know how that'll work cause its already been introduced as being free
He: so its a tough call
Me: Well, I would gladly throw down a small subscription fee if that means I can download mid-high quality MP3s with no glitches and errors
Me: the pain in the ass about file sharing is you're not always sure the file is complete or if it's glitch free.. and that's a pain
He: exactly
He: i think also, to add to the appeal, you develop a faster way of downloading
He: you need something that will beat the freebies
Me: I agree with that.
Me: For example, I use livejournal, which is free and a lot of people stick with the free version, but I paid $100 for a permanent account
Me: because of the faster servers, customization abilities, and a few other perks
He: cause sure, i would like to get all the artwork and shit that comes with the cd, but i wont pay 15 bucks for CD anymore, thats just too much and most albums are wack
He: like if i got a bootleg of an album that i loved, i would pay the money for it cause its worth it
He: its like collecting dvds of your favorite movies
Me: Same here
Me: I bought the Two Towers Internet Soundtrack because it came with a load of extra artwork and was bound in leather.
Me: and I know that a lot of other people bought it, because it was sold out for 2 months
He: right
Me: this was despite the fact the soundtrack was out on the web about a week before it was out in stores
He: like with movies and shit, they got it on lock, its tough to download movies and the quality sucks
Me: hm.. not so much amymore... the DVD screeners are being ripped like candy
Me: but thats another story.. heh
He: word
