file sharing and other naughty Napsters.

[s.w.goatlips]

Hey, that ear looks fake!

[Tony W]

Congrats goatlips, you're no longer a newbie.

[Greeny]

Interesting thread, and lots of interesting opinions.

It's important to remember that a number of studies show that the people downloading and filesharing illegally are the SAME ones who buy more LEGAL CD's than anyone else. They are the ones with such a huge interest in music that they'll often 'audition' new bands and music before going on to buy the proper CD. Record companies should have been all over this 'try before you buy' marketing approach a long long time ago (although they seem to have come around to the idea slowly...).

As far as I'm concerned, record companies had it coming to them for inflating the price of CD's, and not being sharp enough through sheer arrogance to realise the potential (and threat) of online music.

From a personal point of view, in the early days of Napster (around 2000-2001, before any industry types were taking much notice of the potential threat to them and it wasn't classed as illegal), I was able to collect all the weird, obscure songs that I'd never have had the money to buy, and in most cases, wouldn't find anyway. I'm talking about old tv theme tunes, and obscure half-remembered songs from when I was a kid. I didn't feel bad about it at the time, and although I no longer do ANY music or film downloads (paid or otherwise), I still don't feel bad about it. Just like I wouldn't feel bad about buying a knock-off Armani suit in Thailand. Maybe that makes me immoral, but I'm upfront about it.

I agree with Tharek's point that gigs will be where money is made in the future. It's already becoming the case that CD's are becoming trailers / adverts for the forthcoming tour. Radiohead realised this a while ago, or maybe realised that the old model of record buying is dead in the water.

And you only have to look at Sunday newspapers containing giveaway albums and even NEW albums to realise that the world really has changed for music.

But what do I care. I'll just keep on writing songs and singing them whatever, lol.

[Ferryman]

I'm against file sharing in principle as it is stealing in my book, especially when there are now plenty of alternatives like last.fm and myspace where you can hear music without downloading it to see if you like it. So the same medium that made file sharing possible (the Internet) has also removed the argument that you need to download a song without paying for it to see if you like it. Example - I heard about a band called "Wolf Eyes" today so checked out their mysapce site to see if I would like them (which I didn't!). They had two songs there I could play in full.

I agree with Greeny's point that the music business was slow to react to new media and of course reacted in the wrong way (fighting it instead of embracing it). But there are now plenty of ways you can consume music online without getting someone else to break copyright laws for you. And those laws are there to protect people like us just as much as Metallica or whoever.

Just MO, not a dig at anyone.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Flash Harry]

I think that in the near future, the only money to be made from Music will be from Live performances....

Now that I think is true.  And that I think is just.

[Oldrottenhead]

saying that since file sharing sort of kicked in i think there has been an exponential rise in buskers.

[OsCKilO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj59oIxKxos
Speaking of busking............

[s.w.goatlips]

thanks TW.
I suspect that for many musicians, live will be the primary income, however unless they can fill a stadium the money may be hard come by.
There are two reasons this all bothers me.
Firstly, as I said earlier, I like buying the odd CD here and there. I'm worried my choices in this are going to diminish fairly rapidly.
The other one is that I HATE large crowds. I LOVE live music but the two stadium shows that I have been to in my time have really put me off ever doing it again. Gimme small 'n intimate any day.

[OsCKilO]

Gimme small 'n intimate any day.

ok....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crS5ti-Py7Q

This is Sublime!