Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Are Axiom not good rock speakers???

The problem with that is that they're "not" the musicians songs. A large percent of the time the record companies own the rights to the songs. The record companies are money grubbing jerks, who at least IMHO deserve to go through some finacial hardship if it makes them realize they need to change things.

On amazon.com I can buy "Oops...I did it again" for $15 or I can buy "Two Towers" for $20. Can you tell me which of these two productions cost more to produce (by several hundred million dollars)? Which physical storage media costs more to manufacture? Which physical media takes longer to produce? How about packaging? Which is advertised more on television? The cd should cost $5. (And I still wouldn't buy it, although a good cd I would buy.) Also, when I buy "Two Towers" Mr. Jackson gets some of that money. When I buy "Oops...I did it again" do you think Britney sees anything?

That said, people still shouldn't download songs from the net in place of going out and buying music. But if the record companies want me to go out and buy music, they should slash cd prices drastically. At present, I buy maybe 1 cd a month, because it's a complete rip off but I need to feed the addiction. If cds cost less, maybe even $8, I would feel like I wasn't being robbed and would buy *a lot* more music.

Here's a link about a study done recently by Harvard

And here's an excellent article by Orson Scott Card on the whole issue.

At the risk of repeating what others might have said before as I have not been following the thread but the two articles you posted really caught my attention and I vehemently agree with a lot of the points.
What I do not understand is that why consumers are not protesting more about the exorbitant amount of money music cds cost even today in the age where tech makes it so much easier for reproduction.
And I've come acrossed many articles and friends/people who complain about how expensive cds are and yet have no choice but pay the money. Under $10 would be a reasonable price to pay for a cd. Correct me if I am wrong but I think its a sad realization that the major percentage of the money goes to the corporation rather than the artist himself.
Will there never be any real effort towards slashing cd prices, I've been hearing that for years and it hasn't happened yet.

i wonder if those are the same stories users held up when they were subpoenaed?

they're not the downloader's songs either. so what if i make a song and i don't want anyone d/ling it? it's MY song! contrast something to the 'singles' that artists released. many artists allow you to d/l a song or two on their site and that's awesome. it's their choice, not your's...because it's not your song.

the record companies are a different issue. what's the solution if CD prices are too high?

Andrew
Well I do agree with a lot you say, I'd like to make an argument for my specific case, and I'm sure the same argument of many others. My point is what option (other than Kazaa, etc) is there for me to hear new music in a market devoid of anything other than top 40 radio stations? There are no rock stations in Winnipeg that play anything other than the latest-greatest from Nickleback and Default. The only way I have to hear some different music for the first time is by downloading. I own nearly 400cds and I've probably bought 100+ in the past year. Of those I'd bet 80% were artists that I had previously downloaded music from to get a taste for it. How can any reasonable person involved in the music industry expect me to spend $15 on a cd without hearing it first???? They're nuts!

Some reps of the Candian music industry actually just lost a case in Federal Court that was brought about online music sharing. It found that the 29 defendants had not infringed on copyright laws. I personally applaud the court's decision.

Here's the CBC article

allow me to introduce you to internet radio...

http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/

I agree that they are not the downloader's songs either. (Granted I emphasized it less than my other points, but I do feel that way.) The thing is, the music industry has to change. If the only way people can fight the RIAA is by stealing from them, then my vote goes 100% to "steal from them." I would personally love it if we could convince a large portion of the population to altogether stop buying cds from any major record label for 6 months, but I just don't think it's a feasible protest. They will keep trying to sell cds for insane prices until people revolt against it. The more people that revolt the better, and the sooner the revolt the better. If there's a way to do it without breaking the law, that would certainly be ideal. The articles I linked don't say "steal your music" they just provide evidence that "all is not well" in the recording industry. And finally, the whole point is that the song *does not* belong to the artist who made it. In some cases it does, but in the *vast* majority of cases involving the record industry, the record company owns all rights to the songs. So it is not "your song" even though you wrote it and performed it. When talking about bands not signed to major record companies, I 100% wholeheartedly agree that nobody should ever download their music without permission regardless of cd prices. (Unless they either then go buy the cd or delete the files.) But the RIAA doesn't care about those bands at all, and the suits they file do not involve those bands at all.

but will it give me the exact song i'm looking for? Or multiple songs from the same disc? No. It's a wonderful idea, don't get me wrong, but I want to make sure I'm going to like the entire cd, not just one or two of the singles. I just don't believe radio is the answer. It can be a great method of discovering new bands, but won't allow me to hear a cd in it's entirety.

When I can buy CD's for $12 I will buy another CD. Until then I will continue using IRC, BitTorrent, and whatever other file sharing programs that I care to, to get music.

you guys want some cheese with all this 'whine'?

i suppose next we'll be going to movie theatres demanding a viewing before we pay to see the movie? this goes round and round guys.

everyone is in some sort of business around this issue and the bottom line is the bottom line. like it or not, someone is going to make money.

your either part of the problem or part of the solution. if you don't like it, don't buy it. if you want something different, start developing.

i'm in the same boat as all of you. everyone wants more for their dollar. why else did we buy axiom speakers?

what's the solution? i'm really not sure. that's not my 'business.' i would say that things are changing (hopefully) for the better. take metallica's st. anger album as an example. i don't know anyone who likes the songs. but, they did include a FREE DVD with the purchase. that's not bad for $13.99.
who knows what else the record co.'s should try? maybe a line similar to pepsi where you open your product and you have a chance to win something? sounds feasible to me. chances to win an autographed guitar, CDs from warner bros., a poster, movie tickets, etc. the biting truth is that sooner or later CD distribution will need to change by offering more and changing its technology.

Personally, I'm not buying any CDs from any of the labels that are part of the RIAA. I am buying independant label CDs, and I could certainly buy used CDs. I agree that the artists deserve to make money, as do the variuos people involved in production. However, I dislike the RIAA's tactics of suing their customers and concealing the fact that music sales are actually going up. (see arstechnica.com.)