Solution to the file-sharing dilemma

[nmskalmn]

In my opinion the approach the RIAA is taking to solve the problems file-sharing has caused their industry is moronic and futile. Sure, some people are cheap and prefer not to pay for CDs. But the low quality of radio programming and the high cost of CDs (or absence of locally available product in the case of American Jpop fans) leaves other consumers with no option but filesharing to hear the music they like. This could be a tremendous and revolutionary business opportunity. But instead of adapting their business model to the times and giving consumers what they want, the RIAA is trying to destroy their market.

Is there a way to ensure that musicians and record companies recieve a fair profit while at the same time giving consumers what they want, i.e. convenient, instant access to an unlimited variety of music in mp3 format and the ability to share that music with their buddies? I'd like to hear your opinions.

[Unimatrix Prime™]

I'm pretty sure you and others have heard about this, but Apple has set up iTunes, which is essentially a pay-to-play type of thing. Customers would pay 99 cents out of a selection of songs and be able to DL the songs. The bad thing about this so far is that the selection is quite limited, which may draw away some people. The solution, tho, would be using the "backbone" of mp3 trading. In other words, the success of mp3s has been because there's just so many songs to choose from, all from a localized program and with others sharing that same file you're looking for, so that if one person goes offline, the next person with that same file is your new source. RIAA and its "cronies" want to get rid of that, but by capitolizing on that idea (seems they're good at capitolizing..lol), they can have one soure to find songs, with more songs than people know what to do with. Don't like pop? Is jpop more your thing? Or perhaps you're just looking for that perfect trance song? Well... with 1 place with nearly every song up to DL for, say, 99 cents, users won't need to resort to other programs. If anything, the RIAA could use these other apps as ways of revenue, in which if someone doesn't like WinMX's interface, they could try Kazaa or whatever else is out there.

Well... this all may or may not work, since free DLs will exist for quite a while, but leave some comments as to what u think of that idea ! Thanks ^^

[boogieordie]

I agree with you. I think those in charge of the RIAA need to get a reality check. They're standing on a GOLD mine, and they're doing everything they can to burn it down. All they end up doing is pissing off people when they sue 7 year old Jimmy for downloading a Disney song. They need a serious update in their views.

The thing is that no matter what they do they won't stop the free trading of files on the internet. Ever. There are always ways for people to get past whatever the record companies or the government will throw at them.

I say the best way would be to create a person to person file sharing program that would cost a monthly or yearly fee, or a small fee for each file downloaded. The only problem here is maybe the lack of interest from users that already use free p2p software, which would screw over those that actually would pay to use the service. If the price was reasonable, and I was guaranteed X number of people hosting X number of files were going to be using the service, I would sign up I suppose.
It would have to be very good though, I wouldn't want it to be like WinMX where you spend days in a que. I dunno if it would end up being worth it, but the RIAA would get their "fair share".

They could also have a website hosting files, and charge per file, but that would have to be a HUGE website and they'd most certainly hike up the price to something ridiculous.

The RIAA expects people to pay $20 for some artists crappy CD with only one good song, all this does is make people turn to the internet to get that song for free. Look at the age group that the music industry has the most investment in these days - the teenagers. Teenagers are usually broke, and they expect them to pay all that money for one good song? They could easily collect if they could work with it.

The RIAA is, instead, fighting things like CD burners. CD burners do not promote illegal copies, and are perfectly legal because an owner has the right to make a copy of the CD he owns. Why not produce blank CDs? Why not sells things like the CD booklet for an album, which, after a person downloads a CD and burns it, they could have the material meant to go with it? Why not sell something like a 'burning kit' which would be basically everything you get in a regular CD, except the CD is blank and you can burn your mp3s to it? I dunno how reasonable my suggestions for how they can profit from things like that are, but at least I'm thinking of stuff.

The thing is that they're acting dumb and greedy when they should be smart and greedy.

Ashley

hmm ive herd about eth apple thing.. but 99 cents a song.. hmm i dunno lol.. 1000 FREE mp3's... compatrer to 1000 99 cent MP3's

990 bucks lol.. * i hope im right*...

but yeah somethin similar to appl would work really good... but teh RIAA is so freakin blind.. what pisses me off more than teh fact theyre doingall this.. is teh fact that they dont open their minds and see what exactly it is they're dealing with.

[sxesven]

I don't think selling MP3s is the solution. That's wack. Just make the CDs cheaper, fer krists sake!

[Set_0ne]

Originally posted by sxesven
I don't think selling MP3s is the solution. That's wack. Just make the CDs cheaper, fer krists sake!

Here here!!

[boogieordie]

Why? So you have to buy an entire CD with only one good song on it?

Ashley

[Super Ichiban]

Yes, the best solution is to lower the costs of CDs.

I don't think paying to downloads in the answer. There are pay services available and most have not done very well because their selection of songs is very limited. Paying per download would be OK but 99 cents is too much. Subscription services aren't too good because nobody wants to subscribe to a service if the selection isn't good.

There have also been services where you can download, but not burn to a CD. That is obviously a bad idea.

I have read also that a company is trying to buy Kazaa and make it a subscription service, but it will be for streaming music that you can't even download. That would fail.

The record companies have to quit being so greedy. It's not the artists' fault. Artists make more money from touring and concerts than CD sales.

[boogieordie]

Sorry, the entire reason I don't buy CDs is that half the music is crap. I know a bunch of other people with the same attitude. Why pay for more than you want to buy? So just making CDs cheaper wouldn't solve the problem either, because you'd still be paying for filler crap on the album.

Ashley

[Cientifik]

Originally posted by Super Ichiban
The record companies have to quit being so greedy. It's not the artists' fault. Artists make more money from touring and concerts than CD sales.

yeah. artists also make more money by making music that people like. im just waiting to see whatll happen with this whole thing. im kinda curious. everything theyre doing right now is just wrong and lowering CD prices would be a great idea.

[a_yu_volution]

this is just another Corporation step to make profits...from a potential business...i see the only way to stop file sharing is to wipe the word internet from the mind of entire human race....since internet was developed for people to have ability to access and share files over remote network...for RIAA there's lotsa things to worry than file sharing problem..leave us alone...believe me...this efforts will went straight into the drain...in time we will heal and arise back...wonderful mind of human kind...was to adapt to rules...and find a way around it...for survival...

like one famous saying: RULES R MADE TO BE BROKEN....

...ne...deshou...

[Unimatrix Prime™]

Originally posted by AyuRocks
Sorry, the entire reason I don't buy CDs is that half the music is crap. I know a bunch of other people with the same attitude. Why pay for more than you want to buy? So just making CDs cheaper wouldn't solve the problem either, because you'd still be paying for filler crap on the album.

Ashley

yes.. even if the price of CDs is $10, you'd still be getting the stuff u won't like... I know some of you would say "support the artists!!", etc, etc... but really.. how hard is it to make a song which you repeat the same verse 10 times? Or.. how hard is it to make a song with weird sexual sounds? If you think that's "effort", then you'd best be looking up the word in the dictionary... plain and simple, today's music is crap, and to pay for stuff you won't like is wrong. With mp3s, if you get a song you hate, it doesn't cost u a thing and you can delete it in an instant. And with CD burners, you have the freedom to make CDs your way, and can make your own labels and such. I don't care for labels since I never bother to "sing along" to songs (most of the music I have doesn't even have lyrics..lol), but my original view still stands: American music is garbage, the RIAA is also garbage, paying for songs u don't like is garbage, and unless some reasonable alternative comes along, I'll continue doing the same thing I've been doing since 2000 .. sorry, RIAA...

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally posted by AyuRocks
Sorry, the entire reason I don't buy CDs is that half the music is crap. I know a bunch of other people with the same attitude. Why pay for more than you want to buy? So just making CDs cheaper wouldn't solve the problem either, because you'd still be paying for filler crap on the album.

Ashley

That's exactly why I like Ayumi. All of her albums have more than 70% of the songs enjoyable to listen to (even at first listen), but that doesn't happen with most artists. One thing I like about japanese and european market is because singles have a great importance for an artist. That makes the artists put more effort on making a song before releasing every new single. After a fair amount of singles they release an album. In places where singles have no importance or aren't even sold (Brazil, for example), the artists often make a very good song but since they have to release it on an album instead of a single, they rush to create the other songs just to fill the space on the cd. Results = Albums with only one good song and the rest crap. That's a reason i don't bother much for my country's music.

[sxesven]

Originally posted by AyuRocks
Sorry, the entire reason I don't buy CDs is that half the music is crap. I know a bunch of other people with the same attitude. Why pay for more than you want to buy? So just making CDs cheaper wouldn't solve the problem either, because you'd still be paying for filler crap on the album.

Ashley

Well, I think more than 80% percent of the CDs in my collection have at least 80% of good stuff. Definitely. I've never been into pop so I have never bothered with artists of whom I like just one song. There's like six artists in my collection that could be considered Pop (including Ayumi) accounting for 20 CDs at most, but these are all flawless pop albums. Maybe the problem with most ppl is that their musical taste is crap. Start buying good stuff if you hate all those filler albums.

As I have stated before it's the problem with pop music in general that there is so much crap. Everything recorded is released, that's why there's nearly no b-sides and all.

[nmskalmn]

1. The labels should be offering their own subscription p2p services, as Ashley suggested. I think it hurts their case that there is no legal alternative to kazaa or winmx. I think 0.99 per song is way too much though, should be more like 0.20 per song. They should also allow free downloads or some kind of credit to people who buy CDs and artist merchandise. Whether or not I would use such a service would depend largely on the selection available. I want access to every song ever recorded, not a limited library chosen by the RIAA.

2. Even if there is a legal network people are still going to be trading files illegally. A dozen new clients will start up for every soulseek or direct connect they shut down. Another possibility is a some kind of tax on broadband internet services, equipment like cd burners and mp3 players, and blank media. The revenue collected would be distributed to the recording industry (I guess the movie, software, and other industries would want in on this too) to compensate them for their losses. However I think implementing a tax like this would be more controversial and complex than the legal cases RIAA is about to bring against file-sharers.

[sxesven]

Here in Holland we got taxes on CD-Rs and stuff. Today the taxes on DVD-Rs were introduced, making the price twice as high. I don't think it's a problem. If you're going to copy, pay for it anywhoot.

[Cientifik]

Originally posted by Unimatrix™
but my original view still stands: American music is garbage, the RIAA is also garbage, paying for songs u don't like is garbage, and unless some reasonable alternative comes along, I'll continue doing the same thing I've been doing since 2000 .. sorry, RIAA...

i second that, but i dont think there will ever be an reaonable alternative because thats not what they think about. all they want is to shut down the sharing of music. thats it. you think there having a meeting right now saying "we have to think about the customers. there has to be a way to make this thing legal and beneficial for both us and them." of course not. theyre saying "Jim, get me the info on kazaauser18, he'll be the first to face the music. HAHAHAHAHA!!!" and so forth. theyre probably not exactly like that but probably close.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally posted by sxesven
Well, I think more than 80% percent of the CDs in my collection have at least 80% of good stuff. Definitely. I've never been into pop so I have never bothered with artists of whom I like just one song. There's like six artists in my collection that could be considered Pop (including Ayumi) accounting for 20 CDs at most, but these are all flawless pop albums. Maybe the problem with most ppl is that their musical taste is crap. Start buying good stuff if you hate all those filler albums.

As I have stated before it's the problem with pop music in general that there is so much crap. Everything recorded is released, that's why there's nearly no b-sides and all.

Well I listen to a very wide range of music and I'm sorry to say there's a lot more crap than good stuff. Maybe it's not that I only listen to crap, maybe the reason is that I consider crap stuff other people wouldn't consider LOL I go to the cd stores and spend hours listening to many cds and none really attracts me. It's not pop that has crap music...any genre has. You have 80% of good stuff because you had to make a good selection of them - or because you probably can find some good stuff easily since you work with music. You probably had to listen to a lot of crap before getting through all the best stuff.... Or maybe there's a possibility you might like crap and anything is good for you LOL (Just kidding hehhe )

[boogieordie]

Well I listen to a very wide range of music and I'm sorry to say there's a lot more crap than good stuff.

Agreed. The things is, sometime you find one artist that has THE song. A song so awesome, and then nothing else is good about the album. It's not necessrily that the whole genre of music one is listening to is crap. I also think that maybe people expect to music from pop music, but it's more than just pop. Techno is also a good example because there are some really killer techno songs by artists that also make a bunch of crap songs.

Ashley