I'm sick and tired of these music industry insiders ragging on about how piracy killed the music industry.
It is simply not true, music piracy is going down more and more. SImply because services like iTunes make it easy for anyone to just download any song they like at ANY time. iTunes also synchronises your music collection so you can play that bought song on your computer, on your your high quality home theatre speakers and of course on the iPod.
There was a time when you had to go out and buy music from HMV (UK store), when you went there you would be inundated with glossy cd covers of other artists. You were enticed into buying more than you bargained for at each and every visit. The place was impulse purchase galore.
There was also limited choice. Of course there were plenty of singles for chart toppers. But for the most part if you wanted that rare track you had to buy the album or compilation to get it. £15 for one song.
Things have changed a lot now. Now if you want to buy a song, you can preview it at home, by yourself, no peer pressure or social pressure to buy music. You can take as much time or as little time as you like. There was no radio playing which would hype the song that they were playing getting you to buy. Music sales are almost exclusively singles now. Hardly anyone buys an album from itunes.
If you want you can even just play the song on Youtube (not pirated, officially released) and keep playing it, and then if you like it buy it. If you get sick of the song after just 10 plays, best leave it alone and not buy it.
I feel that p2p is getting blamed for this, truth is there is no kazaa or napster any more. If you want to pirate music, you better spend several hours digging through various websites and using tools like mp3 rippers to get music off Youtube or whatever.
So why is p2p getting the blame?? Well p2p killed one thing, that is really crap manufactured music that nobody likes. p2p allowed users to divorce themselves from the cocksucking DJ that will whore his opinions out to the highest bidder and hype the lastest "chart busting song".. Which will inevitably mean that YOu the consumer buys the crap song. That's really why the music industry hates p2p right now. P2p unshackled the music industry's grip over music sales.
The end result? People are more experimental, people are discovering their own niche tastes, and discovering independant bands that play music that strikes a chord with them. No more britney spears or christina aguilara wailing on autotune over some guy which isn't even based on a true story, and possibly written entirely by a third party.
The internet has allowed independant artists to find a way to get exposure and even be the masters of their own fate. Side stepping the record labels, taking all the profit and being in charge of their art.
services like pandora and itunes genius recommendations go a step further and help you discover music that you will REALLY like. regardless of the artist.
Now imagine the possibilities for an independant artist. Just produce your music and upload onto itunes, you dont need a promoter or a business expert, you simply produce music and then anyone who might be interested in ur music gets the heads up from pandora or itunes.
If they like it they buy it. The record labels aren't even in the picture.
Bookmarks