There is a basic quandry that goes on with regard to downloading. One the one hand you have people that say the CD is overpriced for what you get. A simple understanding of economics and inflation shatters that argument because the price has remained unchanged for decades basically.
On the other side is people who think the package should have more features, and that's what this post is about. What makes it special enough? We've got digipacks, extended booklets, video segments, "b-sides" (a reference to the obscure vinyl single where songs that didn't make it on the album, sometimes they outshone the single). Autographs, posters, easter eggs, hidden messages and meanings (One of our releases from Planet P Project called 1931 that talked about WWII Germany used a font that was only ever used on street signs in Berlin at that time, and all the text was at a 31 degree angle for example).
So what makes a package "special enough" for you? What are you looking for?
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Some new industry news
Couple of very promising stories came out today. First up:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7240234.stm
Basically the law being seriously considered would be similar to a drunk driving arrest where you loose your license and car and such. If you get caught, you don't get to have internet any more. This kind of ties in with the extreme punishment blog that we did. Even if you had no financial fine at all, how would you feel about loosing any ability to have internet for a year for pirating? I think this is an excellent step and if it passes, will have a significant impact, especially when the first people get convicted.
In a similar situation, there is talk of legislation in Germany to address companies like Rapidshare that would make them responsible for the content on their service without a complaint having to be made. Currently a lot of bloggers will password protect their files thinking that Rapidshare is looking at the archives and to keep them out. If something like this passes, you can bet that Rapidshare, Megaupload and others are going to start enforcing their terms of service a lot more enthusiastically.
Today the Kuwait government just blocked 20 bittorrent sites and they plan to get even more extreme with it. As rich as Kuwait is, you can hardly use the "I'm poor" excuse for piracy. Good going Kuwait.
And finally the story of ShareReactor http://torrentfreak.com/sharereactor-admin-guilty-080212/ - of course torrentfreak puts their spin on it, but if you look at the details, this guy has had his life turned upside down for years, had to move from country to country, had to pay a ton of legal bills and ultimately this creates a positive precedent for shutting down hosters and propagators. Actually I'm curious, what legitimate use is there for systems like Rapidshare?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7240234.stm
Basically the law being seriously considered would be similar to a drunk driving arrest where you loose your license and car and such. If you get caught, you don't get to have internet any more. This kind of ties in with the extreme punishment blog that we did. Even if you had no financial fine at all, how would you feel about loosing any ability to have internet for a year for pirating? I think this is an excellent step and if it passes, will have a significant impact, especially when the first people get convicted.
In a similar situation, there is talk of legislation in Germany to address companies like Rapidshare that would make them responsible for the content on their service without a complaint having to be made. Currently a lot of bloggers will password protect their files thinking that Rapidshare is looking at the archives and to keep them out. If something like this passes, you can bet that Rapidshare, Megaupload and others are going to start enforcing their terms of service a lot more enthusiastically.
Today the Kuwait government just blocked 20 bittorrent sites and they plan to get even more extreme with it. As rich as Kuwait is, you can hardly use the "I'm poor" excuse for piracy. Good going Kuwait.
And finally the story of ShareReactor http://torrentfreak.com/sharereactor-admin-guilty-080212/ - of course torrentfreak puts their spin on it, but if you look at the details, this guy has had his life turned upside down for years, had to move from country to country, had to pay a ton of legal bills and ultimately this creates a positive precedent for shutting down hosters and propagators. Actually I'm curious, what legitimate use is there for systems like Rapidshare?
Monday, February 4, 2008
COPYRIGHTS AND COMMON SENSE
There is lot's of discussions regarding copyrights.
Some people feel that copyrights are a bad thing.
I would say that these people have not bothered to check the whole picture.
What is copyright?
It's rather simple.
An example: If a band creates music they have the copyright for it.
Sometimes the band has their work released by their own label.
They own their music. Then it is common that they work together with a record label who either license the rights and pay for that, or, at times, the record label buy the music. Basically there is these three ways to go. Either the band owns the copyrights or a label owns it. If they license the rights they own it for a limited period. If the bought the music they own it forever - if they do not sell it, or hire it to some other company.
Either way the bands get paid.
That anyone else should claim that they should have the rights to use the music without asking for permission is in no way acceptable.
Copyrights are not a bad thing. It is simply a way for the originator to protect the rights to decide about his/hers own work.
It is common sense.
How can anyone disagree with that?
Some people feel that copyrights are a bad thing.
I would say that these people have not bothered to check the whole picture.
What is copyright?
It's rather simple.
An example: If a band creates music they have the copyright for it.
Sometimes the band has their work released by their own label.
They own their music. Then it is common that they work together with a record label who either license the rights and pay for that, or, at times, the record label buy the music. Basically there is these three ways to go. Either the band owns the copyrights or a label owns it. If they license the rights they own it for a limited period. If the bought the music they own it forever - if they do not sell it, or hire it to some other company.
Either way the bands get paid.
That anyone else should claim that they should have the rights to use the music without asking for permission is in no way acceptable.
Copyrights are not a bad thing. It is simply a way for the originator to protect the rights to decide about his/hers own work.
It is common sense.
How can anyone disagree with that?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Worthless? Really?
There is a lot of talk about the price of CD's and about value for money.
I've given this a lot of thought over the last few days.
Let's put this into perspective, when you buy a CD, the small bit of plastic, the disc itself is just the method in which the music is delivered to you, it's the envelope, it's the plate for the food if you like. When you buy a CD you are buying a copy of that music, you can keep it for all of your life and listen everyday, or you can listen once and put it on a shelf and forget it, that is your choice once you have bought it.
Something that you could get pleasure from daily for tens of years for a few £'s is not good value? The price of a CD compared to the price of a coffee, or the price of a cinema ticket is low, very low, and you have this thing, this special something for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, it has the potential to cheer you when you are sad, to comfort you when you are alone, to join you to others, really it's an amazing thing!
To say "music should be free" devalues it.
It says that you believe that the work, inspiration, imagination, skill, time and effort that has gone into composing and recording the piece is worthless.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the musician for a moment, how would you be inspired to write music in such a climate? How could you go to work each day if you were being told that your work was worthless?
Consider what it would be like to be told you were worthless, BUT your services were still required free of charge, then ask yourself how you would feel? Would you be hurt, angry, depressed?
Is this a fair and just way to treat the people we admire?
When those who regularly steal music get cornered, they tend to get angry and try to defend this behaviour, if this is you, please stop and consider the emotional impact you are having by the soul destroying actions you chose. Even if you wrongly deny or discount the financial blow and burden you create.
So many artists are independant these days, they are musicians and at the same time the plan tours (financially putting their necks on the line to do so), they run websites, they design t-shirts, they do the accounts, they parcel up cd's and ship them, they promote and advertise, they often do all the jobs that traditionally a record label would have done, and at the end of the day, the special thing that they do, the music, is taken, with no thought to consequence. When they have the audacity to speak up about it they are ridiculed and abused! HUH?
Can we add a little humanity to this issue and really consider the effect of taking and freely distributing something that you have no right to.
Wilcey. Prog Against Pirates.
I've given this a lot of thought over the last few days.
Let's put this into perspective, when you buy a CD, the small bit of plastic, the disc itself is just the method in which the music is delivered to you, it's the envelope, it's the plate for the food if you like. When you buy a CD you are buying a copy of that music, you can keep it for all of your life and listen everyday, or you can listen once and put it on a shelf and forget it, that is your choice once you have bought it.
Something that you could get pleasure from daily for tens of years for a few £'s is not good value? The price of a CD compared to the price of a coffee, or the price of a cinema ticket is low, very low, and you have this thing, this special something for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, it has the potential to cheer you when you are sad, to comfort you when you are alone, to join you to others, really it's an amazing thing!
To say "music should be free" devalues it.
It says that you believe that the work, inspiration, imagination, skill, time and effort that has gone into composing and recording the piece is worthless.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the musician for a moment, how would you be inspired to write music in such a climate? How could you go to work each day if you were being told that your work was worthless?
Consider what it would be like to be told you were worthless, BUT your services were still required free of charge, then ask yourself how you would feel? Would you be hurt, angry, depressed?
Is this a fair and just way to treat the people we admire?
When those who regularly steal music get cornered, they tend to get angry and try to defend this behaviour, if this is you, please stop and consider the emotional impact you are having by the soul destroying actions you chose. Even if you wrongly deny or discount the financial blow and burden you create.
So many artists are independant these days, they are musicians and at the same time the plan tours (financially putting their necks on the line to do so), they run websites, they design t-shirts, they do the accounts, they parcel up cd's and ship them, they promote and advertise, they often do all the jobs that traditionally a record label would have done, and at the end of the day, the special thing that they do, the music, is taken, with no thought to consequence. When they have the audacity to speak up about it they are ridiculed and abused! HUH?
Can we add a little humanity to this issue and really consider the effect of taking and freely distributing something that you have no right to.
Wilcey. Prog Against Pirates.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
New industry news on downloading
I've seen a lot of pirates point to articles from 6 years ago to try and support their point that illegal downloads aren't affecting sales, and maybe 6 years ago it wasn't as bad. I've been saying that 98% of the people that illegally download and keep it, don't buy it, well I was wrong, it is 95%. Here are two new stories on the subject that you should read.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3247758.ece
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c6a63ed2-cae7-11dc-a960-000077b07658.html
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3247758.ece
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c6a63ed2-cae7-11dc-a960-000077b07658.html
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Prog Against Pirates Player
We thought we'd start to experiment with having a player on the site here that will randomly play a song from it's list, and you can also select specific songs. We're still working on some of the configuration settings, but you'll find the player at the bottom of the page, you can select any song in the list and play it if you want to try something different.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
What is your solution?
Throughout all of this I see the same basic statement repeated constantly, "The record labels haven't adapted to technological changes at all or fast enough.". I would contend that this is patently and demonstrably false, and I'll illustrate it in a moment, but what I want to know is this - what do YOU think is the answer that provides for the artist getting paid, and I'm not talking pie in the sky "do it like Radiohead did" because that won't work for 99% of bands. Unlike other posts, I'm going to filter out the nonsense rants because I want a productive discussion.
Here is how the labels have changed with technological changes:
Went from 8 Track to Cassette (this might seem minor to you, but I had a big collection of 8 tracks)
Went from Vinyl and Cassette to CD
Adopted online sales, Amazon spearheaded a lot of this
Adopted digital distribution once a method was available (iTunes)
Adopted listening stations at record outlets
Embraced social networking like MySpace and YouTube
Keep in mind how fast some of this stuff came up, 2 years ago no one was talking about YouTube and MySpace was pretty minor. You can't just follow every shiny ball that rolls by, you have to see what is going to shake out and make the best business decision you can.
Here is how the labels have changed with technological changes:
Went from 8 Track to Cassette (this might seem minor to you, but I had a big collection of 8 tracks)
Went from Vinyl and Cassette to CD
Adopted online sales, Amazon spearheaded a lot of this
Adopted digital distribution once a method was available (iTunes)
Adopted listening stations at record outlets
Embraced social networking like MySpace and YouTube
Keep in mind how fast some of this stuff came up, 2 years ago no one was talking about YouTube and MySpace was pretty minor. You can't just follow every shiny ball that rolls by, you have to see what is going to shake out and make the best business decision you can.
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