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beezee88

Home Taping Is Killing Music!!!

Are mp3s killing music?  

26 members have voted

  1. 1. Are mp3s killing music?

    • Yes, we\'re all going to hell!!!
      2
    • No, they\'re providing a wake-up call for record companies.
      20
    • Screw mp3s, don\'t you know vinyl is best!?!?!?
      4


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"Home Taping Is Killing Music" - A popular slogan from the 80s put out by record companies feeling threatened by an increase in the copying of albums. Guess what? 20 years later, music's still here! See, maybe they failed to realise that most people would only copy if they didn't like it enough to buy it, or if they were making their own compilations.
Why do I mention this? Well, it seems the fatcats are kicking up a stink once again, over Peer2Peer File Sharing. Seems that "mp3s are killing music"! Why buy an album from an artist when you only like one song? Also, I believe for some people, mp3s can encourage them to buy CDs. Me for example, I discovered Mad Caddies and Goldfinger that way and bought their albums as a consequence.
It's partly their own fault, through greed. £15 for a new album is not cool.

So, what do you think?

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I think they're providing a wake-up call, but I'm not sure the industry is hearing it.

Technology advances. Evolve or die.

Edit: I've got a friend on IRC who would probably have voted "vinyl is the best" =P

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Draconio said:

Technology advances. Evolve or die.


good call. Don't they realise that after they have spent untold billions shutting down Kazaa, Morpheus etc another will rise to take it's place?

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I sometimes get interested in a band by listening to mp3's, causing me to buy the album sometime later. So it can stimulate sales too. Although I'm aware that a lot of people never actually buy anything anymore.

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I wish I could say that I buy musi if I like it enough, but thats bullshit. So yeah, I personaly am killing the music industry. I dont have 20 dollars to blow on a cd, thats ridiculous.

Beezee88: Haha, you bought a Goldfinger album.

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I suspect all they really want to achieve is to make sure the honest people (who are the majority, I think) understand that improper sharing is not OK. That was certainly the aim of the "Home Taping is Killing Music" campaign in the 1980s, and I get the impression it pretty much worked. Obviously they couldn't hope to stamp it out altogether.

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Assmaster said:

I wish I could say that I buy musi if I like it enough, but thats bullshit


I envy your broadband capabilities. When you have the choice to hear music and never pay for it, Iguess conscience really doesn't come into it.

Assmaster also said:

Beezee88: Haha, you bought a Goldfinger album.


bah.

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beezee88 said:

I envy your broadband capabilities. When you have the choice to hear music and never pay for it, Iguess conscience really doesn't come into it.

Who said anything about broadband? Im on a 56k modem.

bah.

Hey, when I heard their 99 luftbaloons cover, I too was fooled into thinking their other stuff would be good :P

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Assmaster said:

Who said anything about broadband? Im on a 56k modem.


Jeezus, how long do you sit there!?!?!?

Hey, when I heard their 99 luftbaloons cover, I too was fooled into thinking their other stuff would be good :P


Have you heard Spokesman and Superman, those are excellent (I would say that though). I think that's the only other hits they've had.

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the only place I share music is on IRC, and I have zipfiles of my favorite bands.

RIAA must adapt to new tech or will become a thing of the past. Sueing people because they have MP3s is the stupidest thing they can do to lose money. At least MPAA churns out good movies on occasion and pay good money (do they? I assume so) to the actors, unlike RIAA which usually has a few good songs on a CD and the rest crap/filler, and the music artists get a fraction of what they make and the rest (90%+) goes to the record industries *coughCashCowcough*

RIAA cannot go to every corner of the internet to stop music piracy, they will run out of money before they do. This means thousands of IRC networks, millions of websites, millions of users and so on. It will continue as long as the internet exists. I don't think they'd be able to shut down foriegn P2P programs such as EarthStation 5 (A Palestinian programmed it, and they don't have authority to try and shut them down since they are outside the states.

Also, the US government should crack down on judges/senators/politicians accepting bribes from the RIAA so we actually have decent people who won't make crap laws and such (Berman and Hatch for example)

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Draconio said:

I've got a friend on IRC who would probably have voted "vinyl is the best" =P


I've got a dad who would always vote 'vinyl is best' :'(
I agree up to a point, but that's another thread...

So, anyone have anti-p2p arguments? I wanna hear 'em!

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beezee88 said:

Jeezus, how long do you sit there!?!?!?

Uh, it only takes like 7-10 minutes to download an average song. Plus, I listen to alot of punk, and those songs are always like 30 seconds long or something :P
My song rip-offage tally also includes mp3's and cds that I got from other people. So keep that in mind.

Have you heard Spokesman and Superman, those are excellent (I would say that though). I think that's the only other hits they've had.

damn, I forgot about Superman. Ok fine, that ones also really damn good.
*grumble*

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Heh, I feel that the majority of people will buy albums if they like the songs. I mean, if download a song, it's because I like the artist, and if I like the artist, then I'm more likely to buy an album by that artist. That's why I have my copy of Californication. One thing I don't like is the music industry's attempts to prevent people from copying music altogether. Like, when I got my new computer, I ripped all of my CD's onto it, not so I could pirate them over the Internet (I have 56k so wouldn't want to anyways), but so I could just listen to all of my music without having to go and change discs all the time. If they had their way, I wouldn't be able to do that, which is stupid. I bought the CD, why do you get to tell me what to do with it?

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I don't think I could buy albums of artists I like because I don't think SamGoody has those CDs.

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Back about 2-5 years ago, I figured the music industry was dead. All I listened to was Classic Rock and Grunge because I figured that music had died with grunge. Nothing good was coming out. I heard nothin worthwile on the radio, nothing great on TV, and all my friends were listening to crap. I actualy thought NIN and SoaD were awesome artists because they were the only good new acts out there.

I had heard about file sharing, but I thought it was retarded because why get something online that you could actualy OWN for just $10-$15 (I know how to shop smart ;)). But then a freind of mine started talking about all these bands I had never heard of or had heard of but knew nothing about: Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Genitorturers, Cake, Pigface... Adn one day he decided to give me a CD of his full of mp3s. Right there was a turning point in my life. Half of the CD was taken up my shitty emo, but also on it was Skinny Puppy - Morpheus Laughing, Cake - Comfort Eagle, an album by Gary Numan, and some bands I had never heard of before like Apoptygma Berzerk.

Then I knew there actualy WAS something out there. I had to get more! Since I had missed the whole Napster thing, he reccomended to me Audiogalaxy and I got on that, downloading these artists like crazy. After I had thuroghly gotten all I could of them, I turned to look for more. What was that band that did stuff for Descent? Ah yes, Type O Negative, lets see what they sound like. What was that band that did a lot of NIN remixes? Ah yes, Coil. I wonder if they are any good. So the lead singer of Skinny Puppy has a solo album out? ohGr is it? Lemme see if that's interesting...

And thus I was introduced to bands that you cant ever hear on the radio because of jackoffs like the RIAA. And if you think I'm denting the music industry, just look at this list of albums I have bought SINCE i started file sharing:

A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms
Cake - Fashion Nugget
Genitorturers - Sin City
KMFDM - Symbols
KMFDM - Agogo
KMFDM - Adios
KMFDM - Boots
Ministry - 12 Inch Singles
Ministry - Greatest Fits
Nine Inch Nails - Still
Gary Numan - Pure
ohGr - Welt
ohGr - SunnyPsyOp
Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos Dedo Mis Amigos
Sister Machine Gun - Metropolis
Skinny Puppy - The Process
Slick Idiot - DickNity
Tool - Opiate
(3 industrial compilation/promo CDs)
A Clockwork Orange soundtrack

That's 22 CDs...and only 3 of them at the most would I have ever bought if I hadn't discovered music trading. Now 22/76 CDs I own doesn't sound like much, but consider that 1) I've been buying Cds since '95, and 2) my income is considerably less now than it used to be (my $20/week allowance stopped coming in soon after I started file sharing :P).

And now I have about 40 CDs on my to-get list, 90% of them being of bands I didn't know existed just 3 years ago. As soon as I get a job, I'm getting them.

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Assmaster said:

Who said anything about broadband? Im on a 56k modem.


Me too. That's why it's quicker for me to jump in my car, drive 20 minutes to the nearest decent record store, park up, find the CD I want, buy it and drive home.

Also, I like to own the "genuine product" rather than have a bunch of files sitting on my HD.

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Cd's should cost 10$

then people wouldnt think twice about buying more often.

sales would probably increase enough to actually make more net profit ;P

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p2p filesharing will never die.

the artists arent losing money from filesharing, hell, NOBODY is losing money from it to any great extent afaik. its all the record label heads that are prosecuting because theyre greedy SOB's who think that theres some crazy money being lost. if they actually do win a lawsuit, will the artists see a penny of it? no it all goes to lawyers and the record heads.

i think that they do not realize the whole situation of p2p. i would not have bought a cd by the bands i download because i am a cheap and poor bastard. i would rather do without the music than spend 20 dollars for it. but since i have the opportunity to get it for free, hell yeah ill download it.

why buy a cd with 10+ songs for the 1 or 2 songs that i like from the album for 20 bucks when i can download those 2 for free?

i have not slowed down buying cd's due to p2p. i never really bought them in the first place. i only own about 25. but i own 1100+ mp3's, and theyre all 56k'd. ive also never shared my files over kazaa, cuz i need my bandwidth. i dont have megs to share over the internet with my 56k, ive got 4kb.

my musical interests have also greatly broadened due to filesharing. before i had napster back in the day i only liked metallica, no lie. now however i like all kinds of music, classic rock, a lil rap, metal, techno, etc. ive got more music than all my friends.

so thank you p2p, you have shown me more pleasurable music than music execs could have ever done. fuck you riaa.

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Few are less into music and filesharing than me, but I can't help but think that anyone who buys CDs (major labels assumed) are complete suckers and fools. I also pity them for funding criminal fatcats.

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my problem is kind of the opposite. i can't find the bands i want to hear on any filesharing programs, so i'm forced to buy their goddamned cds. it's a drag.

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P2P is good for getting stuff few people like or that you can't buy in your area. I get TV shows they won't carry in Canada (Jeremiah anyone?) and lots of music nobody I know cares about. Also get copies of things I have on tapes/CDs cause I'm too lazy to rip them.

Apple has iTunes now. It would be great if they weren't cutting deals so some music (LXG soundtrack) is only available there. Thanks to shit like that, we're just gonna pirate it anyway cause I'm not buying a Mac to buy music.

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Go to any show these days, and compared to say, four years ago, the ammount of attendees has almost doubled. Most bands get 90% of their income from touring and merch. Money from record sales typically goes to the record company, for the money they loaned the artist to produce their album. Not to mention the fact that companies take half of the artist's income anyway. Mp3s work out for artists, weather they like it or not.

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Heh, I've got an idea. Why don't they stop playing top 20 on all the radio stations? Seriously, it's frickin' annoying. Why would anyone want to hear the same set of songs play over and over? I think radio is killing the music industry, personally. If they want us to fork over money for their albums, play some msuic from albums we would actually want to buy. Crap, I hate radio. Well, I don't hate radio itself, I just hate the way it's been hijacked by stupid corporations who cater to the masses by playing only top 20. I mean, we couldn't possibly take a risk and play a song that no one has heard before, can we? No, that would be far too dangerous. We might alienate our zombies I mean listeners. God people are stupid.

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Uh, top 20 (40 here) gets played because it's popular. It might not seem that way to you, but that stuff is what most people want to hear.

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mp3s are in no way killing music plenty of people still buy the albums and also there is another way for the music company to make money............concert tickets which are ridiculously overpriced.

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Whether or not you like to admit it, downloading of copyrighted material is stealing. Now, you say that the record industry is made up of greedy SOBs, and you're right, it is. You say that they overcharge for CDs, and you're right, they do. But that does NOT give you the right to steal the music. It's their property, and they can do whatever they want with it. Listening to music is a privlige. It is not nearly a right.

P2P probably won't destroy the industry, but it will definately slash their profit. Then, one of two things will probably happen:

1) The industry stops overcharging CDs, and they live with the lesser profit.
2) The industry keeps the prices at the current rate, goes into a suing frenzy, and crashes.

Either way I normally wouldn't care, but it would have bad effects on the economy, and with the economy already in the shitter, I don't know if it can take another hit. So let's wait for the economy to rebound before go about crashing industry, alright? :)

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Well I realize that, but what I'm saying is that it won't sell albums for sure. Frankly, I am routinely frightened by the idiocy of the masses, and thus tend to prefer to igonre reality. It's like, you have some song by say Britney Spears, and assuming that people like it, they'll buy the album. Then what? They already have the Britney Spears album, and they're not gonna buy it again, but nothing else is played on the radio, and so the people are never made aware that there is anything else.

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