Quote:
Originally Posted by jayeff
Actually no it isn't. Capitalism, even at its most "red in tooth and nail" does not condone theft. At root there really is no difference between torrent sites and a fence selling property stolen in burglaries. One could argue that the law, and not marketing, has to catch up with technology.
However, the internet has a global reach, while local laws are localized and varied. That is what may force a change in marketing tactics: not considerations of competition. Torrent sites do not offer one record company (for example) an advantage over another. They damage all the record companies.
Someone, but I think only one person in this whole thread, mentioned that investors can place their money wherever the wish. Thus the question is not whether illegal file trading on the internet will eventually wipe out the profits of the music industry. Rather it is at what point will the profits have declined enough for investors to look elsewhere.
Someone else rather foolishly commented that Hollywood's stars haven't traded in their limos for Toyota's yet. True. But when someone like George Lucas declares he will not make any more movies, the writing is on the wall.
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You are taking that line way out of context. I'm not talking about torrent sites and people who steal. I'm talking about the fact that the marketplace has changed.
People are starting to want MP3's instead of CD's now days. So the best place to deliver the customer what they want is on the web. Doesn't mean they have to condone stealing but they need to cater to their customer base or they will lose it.
This is where the RIAA has failed, they failed to accept the fact that the marketplace has changed and they did too little far too late. Now they are trying to play catch up. If they had embraced the web and it's power to deliver their product, they would have made billions of dollars. Now they are lucky if the product isn't given away from free.
Simple thing happened, a new thing came out a while back called MP3's, people like them. The Music industry didn't like them, because they were stuck up on selling CD's for $20 a pop like the greedy bastards they are.
So the customer base still wanted MP3's so they went and D/Led them for free. The customer base got used to D/Led them for free because the Music industry failed to adapt and deliver the product in the format the customer base wanted.
So now we have the RIAA trying to play catch up and trying to shove the rabbit back in the hat, which is a very hard thing to do. If the record companies would have offered their product on the net from the start and reasonable prices they could have made major bank.
I have no idea about their numbers, and what it takes to make a profit for them, but I'd think they could have offered songs at .25 cents a download and still made a profit. If people had been given a legal way to get their music from the start, stealing it wouldn't have been stopped but it likely wouldn't have been as big as it is today.
Add to that you have sites like pirate bay making over 80k a month in advertising.. You don't think the music industry couldn't have made just a little bit in advertising on their own sites if they were likely to be some of the biggest sites on the net? They could have made a bank but they were too stupid and greedy to see the forest because of the trees.