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[runequester]

Originally Posted by commodorejohn

If you're into piracy, high-quality music rips are not that difficult to come by, and they're free, to boot! Even better deal!

It does sort of amuse me that you can buy portable MP3 players and phones with 16+ GB of storage, while they claim to totally be against music piracy.

Because everyone I know is going to fill that storage space up at 1 dollar per song, real soon now.

But they are really totally against piracy.

[commodorejohn]

Well, I can see an argument being made for legitimate music purchase on ethical grounds, especially now that there are services where a significant chunk of that money actually goes to the artist and not the eighteen middlemen imposed by the music industry standard model. But it's still funny to hear something that costs money praised as "a good deal" compared to something that costs nothing...

Me, I just buy used LPs on eBay.

[Britelite]

Originally Posted by runequester

It does sort of amuse me that you can buy portable MP3 players and phones with 16+ GB of storage, while they claim to totally be against music piracy.

Because everyone I know is going to fill that storage space up at 1 dollar per song, real soon now.

And people owning CD's and actually ripping those to MP3's is of course totally unthinkable?

[Kesa]

Originally Posted by Britelite

And people owning CD's and actually ripping those to MP3's is of course totally unthinkable?

But most people don't have 1000's of cds in their collection (If they say they do they are lying).

I would also like to point out that when you "buy" songs from itunes you don't actually own the songs you simply receive a licence. Bruce Willis is suing Apple because he spent thousands building up his collection and is not allowed to give his collection to someone else.

[Britelite]

Originally Posted by Kesa

But most people don't have 1000's of cds in their collection (If they say they do they are lying).

But then again, you don't need 1000's of CD's to fill up something like 16GB, a couple of hundred is enough. Most of my friends (who aren't casual listeners) own CD's and/or LP's to fill up way over 16GB as decent quality MP3's.

[spirantho]

I have enough LPs recorded to fill 16gb many times over, and I've only recorded a few hundred of my LPs, about 20% of my collection. No downloads for me at all (no point having a decent audio system and putting lossy compressed audio through it!).
My needle-drops are 200khz (100 for mono) variable bitrate OGG Vorbis (much better than mp3), so they're nothing unusual.
Incidentally Sansa mp3 players are great for OGG and FLAC - can't do that on an iPod.

Heck, I could fill 16GB in about 50 tracks (as long as those were tracks were by Yes or Genesis or something )

However, I am - of course - in the minority. Most people I meet just use a digital five-finger discount.

One thing though, this isn't a new phenomenon. Anyone old enough knows that in the 80s you could walk into many shops and buy blank tapes, C15 for computers or C90 for audio.... and nobody ever believed they were all being used to make new games and music. Then it was blank CDs. Now "blank" ipods. It's nothing new.

[Kesa]

We also never had the internet in the 1980's either. Comparing the 2 are not really the same.

[commodorejohn]

Originally Posted by spirantho

Heck, I could fill 16GB in about 50 tracks (as long as those were tracks were by Yes or Genesis or something )

Let us not forget Jethro Tull, or Focus, ELP, or Pink Floyd...

[spirantho]

Originally Posted by commodorejohn

Let us not forget Jethro Tull, or Focus, ELP, or Pink Floyd...

Hehe. I always knew Amiga users had taste.

[Nlandas]

Originally Posted by runequester

It does sort of amuse me that you can buy portable MP3 players and phones with 16+ GB of storage, while they claim to totally be against music piracy.

Because everyone I know is going to fill that storage space up at 1 dollar per song, real soon now.

But they are really totally against piracy.

Really? I legally own over 60GBs of MP3 files but I wasn't dumb enough to buy them from someone like Apple at $1 a song. Of course I didn't even buy them as MP3s. I bought the original audio CDs and ripped them to FLAC for lossless storage and convert them to MP3 as needed. ;^D

[Nlandas]

Originally Posted by Kesa

But most people don't have 1000's of cds in their collection (If they say they do they are lying).

I would also like to point out that when you "buy" songs from itunes you don't actually own the songs you simply receive a licence. Bruce Willis is suing Apple because he spent thousands building up his collection and is not allowed to give his collection to someone else.

Define 'most people' and most new devices with 16GB+ of storage aren't only storing MP3s either. In my circle of friends I have several that legally own over a thousand LPs, Tapes, and CDs.

The days of a dedicated MP3 player aren't gone but most people are buying Smart devices that play movies too. Put a few legally owned movies on the device, photos, recorded video and MP3s and 16GB isn't that big. That's why I stream much of my content to my puny 16GB devices. ;^D

-Nyle

[runequester]

Originally Posted by spirantho

I have enough LPs recorded to fill 16gb many times over, and I've only recorded a few hundred of my LPs, about 20% of my collection. No downloads for me at all (no point having a decent audio system and putting lossy compressed audio through it!).
My needle-drops are 200khz (100 for mono) variable bitrate OGG Vorbis (much better than mp3), so they're nothing unusual.
Incidentally Sansa mp3 players are great for OGG and FLAC - can't do that on an iPod.

yeah, the lack of formats it supports is rather aggravating.

[runequester]

Originally Posted by Britelite

And people owning CD's and actually ripping those to MP3's is of course totally unthinkable?

Where I work, we employ mostly younger people. I'd be highly surprised to find many 19 to 21 year olds owning even 10 CD's nowadays.

[Nlandas]

Originally Posted by runequester

Where I work, we employ mostly younger people. I'd be highly surprised to find many 19 to 21 year olds owning even 10 CD's nowadays.

That is true. The Music industry has had a huge decline as digital has come along.

It's easy for some(not you.) to point all the fault at piracy but when I was a kid I had the ability to copy any record or tape but I still bought the majority of my music. Yes, it is easier to get copies today but still I think a large part of why many do not buy the music is because the industry refuses to change with the times. They had the chance to embrace digital and lower distribution costs and pass that on to the consumer but chose not to.

As it stands, IMNSHO the cost of a MP3 album or individual tracks are far too high for many people. I think the industry would see a Renaissance of sales if they'd stop putting out so much cookie cutter music and lower the price on their digital media.

The movie industry needs to do the same thing - exclusive pay per view rentals have made them fat and lazy. The new generation wants it's media streamed over the Internet and typically wants some form of unlimited streaming package instead of $3.00 per movie view.

The excuse for high price is always piracy and the high price always causes more to pirate. So where is the solution?


-Nyle

[runequester]

It's actually sort of interesting, because the music industry now basically works on a model of "pay us if you want to, you can get the product either way", whether they admit it or not.

Supply and Demand gets interesting when the supply is set to infinity

edit: And you are right of course as regards industry attitudes. THe problem is they based their entire business on controlling the distribution. When that control was taken away, it turned out, they didn't have a backup plan, because they never expected to do anything else.