Grammy Chief Yells At File Traders
from the cry-me-a-river dept
Ah, the music industry at work. Grammy Chief C. Michael Greene (who apparently makes $2 million a year while running this non-profit group) used his speech at the Grammies last night to trash people who trade music online. It’s beginning to sound like a broken record, but the music industry is so blind to their own greed that they don’t even realize how silly they sound. He tries to put the issue “into sharp focus” by using the absolutely useless example of hiring three kids to download 6,000 songs in a day. How does that prove anything? Because they downloaded 6,000 songs does it mean that they would have gone out and bought those 6,000 songs on CDs at $18 a pop? Does it mean that they won’t find something they like in those 6,000 songs which will cause them to go out and buy a CD or see a show of a band they otherwise never would have heard of? The music industry continues to position music trading as this evil activity, and refuses to listen to what their customers want because they can’t see through their own dollar stained eyes to realize the potential of working with online file trading systems to actually grow a market in a way that will make them even more money. Update: Some interesting responses to Greene’s speech. It seems that a lot of people think it was a terrible, self-serving speech. They quote musicians and analysts who all think that it looked really bad for him to make such a speech without improving how the labels work with musicians or how they distributed music online.
Comments on “Grammy Chief Yells At File Traders”
Better start cracking, I've got a lot of music to
The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents most record companies, estimates that people illegally download 3.6 billion songs each month.
If this is in fact the case, then I’d assume that they’ve broken it down to an average number of songs per user, and if they’d assume around 50 million internet users in the US (probably way too high!,) that would be around 72 illegally downloaded songs per user per month.
Considering the fact that I have not downloaded a single song from Napster or any other Music/File trading service, I better get to work. After all, this is what the RIAA wants us, their customers, to believe, that we are all a bunch of theives who would rather pay $20-$70 a month in connection fees to download enough songs to fill 6 CDs then purchase them for $18 a pop. Hmmm…maybe they have a point there…
did you notice...
He didn’t even have his terminology straight! He consistantly referred to people downloading mp3’s “from websites”… I would be willing to bet that 99%+ of mp3’s are downloaded directly from others hard drives.. and have never even BEEN on the web… oh well.. i was in tears laughing before the end of that speech…
No Subject Given
Practically every CD I’ve bought in the last year (and there have been too many) has been the result of my downloading the songs from a band/artist I’d never heard of and thought I’d check them out.
I turned on the television last night just as he was making said speech and I was absolutely disgusted.
Your mistaken about one thing.
It would not make him more money. The performers would make more money. He would no longer be the person controlling art, you would.
Sales?
I’m just waiting for the figures that show that theres been a big decrease in sales, soley dedicated to the bad, bad people stealing money from the poor record companies. Of course, you’re not *ever* going to hear that the ‘global recession’ had *anything* to do with the drop in sales, as people opted for food rather than an (overpriced) CD or three.
—
Zak
Re: Sales?
Yes, it does have to do with people opting more for actual needs than entertainment. People are stressed out about their future. It has nothing to do with piracy. I would rather buy from an artists I could hear first, and NOT have the crap that the music industry execs THINK I want to hear. Boy bands? Teeny-boppers? It’s all crap. Let me find what I like – not what they think I like. CD’s should sell for about $5 to $8 anyway. Greed came through that speech – “ooooh – poor me, I only took in 2.5 million this year instead of the 3.5 million ised to get.” Tell it to the real world pal. We have enough to worry about without this clap-trap B.S.