BMG Happy With Results Of Copy Protected CD, More Coming
from the waste-of-cash dept
With all the hype surrounding BMG’s release of Anthony Hamilton’s CD with copy protection, it’s no surprise that sales have done well. BMG is apparently so impressed that they’re expanding the copy protection to other CDs. While they admit that they can’t tell if it’s because of the copy protection, they did notice that the usual sales drop-off for the Hamilton CD was much slower than with a typical CD. With most music releases, the first week is strong and then there’s a huge drop off. The music industry believes that the amount of the drop off may indicate how much the music is being shared on file sharing networks (a very big assumption – and one that I doubt would be true). Besides, you just need the file to get up their once to make its way around – and Hamilton’s CD showed up on file sharing networks before it was even released. I’d say a much more likely reason for the continued sales was all the press coverage about the copy protection scheme. More interesting, though, is that BMG says consumer backlash was much lower than expected, and most people didn’t realize that the CD they bought was copy protected. Of course, it’s interesting to see the music industry now going the reverse course of the movie industry on this particular topic. While the movie industry has copy protected their DVDs for years, they’re now realizing it’s a waste of money. I wonder if the pattern will be for plenty of new CDs to come out with (weak) copy protection that simply increases the costs (but does little to slow down file sharing), and then we’ll hear some story about a record label ditching copy protection “to save money”.
Comments on “BMG Happy With Results Of Copy Protected CD, More Coming”
Let 'em do it!!!
I say good for them. As long as they properly label the CDs, and don’t attempt to hide the fact that they are copy protected and then tell you that you cannot return them. It is about time that we actually allow evolution to clear out the dinosaurs, and allow the laws of capitalism to work.
Even though I’ve pretty much “Boycotted RIAA”, I still buy music from the indies (and I admit, I have purchased a few RIAA CDs, but only old stuff,) I’d still not buy the latest CD from an artist I like listening too if it is copy protected. If others don’t mind buying CDs which restrict them from doing whatever they want with the CD, including playing it on a computer, or adding it to an MP3 Jukebox (for personal use,) then they are the demand that the BMG is supplying music for. If BMG doesn’t have problems selling to this small subsection of the community, then that is not a problem for me. But if they expect everyone to buy their crap, and proceed to whine and complain when people choose not to buy their CDs, then I have a big problem with that (and I fear this will be the ultimate outcome of their “study”, given their bad science in the past.)
You cannot turn your back on a majority of your customers, and then still expect them to buy your product. Any attempts to enforce them to is not Capitalism!
Re: Let 'em do it!!!
Capitalism is a very bad idea that does not work. If you think it does, then you are entirely deluded and know nothing about economics. (That probably means you are an American….)
Re: Re: Let 'em do it!!!
you sound like you live in france ha!! I have no problem with free enterprise!! if americans are so stupid about business, how come the majority of people graduating from college are business majors? look at the facts before you diss america!!! Anyways I don’t care about weak copyright protection on cd’s. I’ve been making back-ups of dvd’s for more than a year now, no weak copyright protection is going to stop anyone, just use dvd decrypter and the copy right protection is gone. Now they are just going to come out with cd decrypter, it is not going to stop anyone from making backups. In fact it is a waste of time and money, because I am sure there is already code out there to reverse their copyright protection.
Re: Re: Let 'em do it!!!
Capitalism is a very bad idea that does not work.
I don’t really think this baseless flame really needs a response, but for the sake of consistancy…
Maybe or maybe not, though I think you’ll find just as many folks around here who can show that it works perfectly fine as those who don’t. It may or may not work depeding on a lot of circumstances. It appears to work fine in a number of populations. I don’t see Socialism, Facism, or Communism working too well in all circumstances either.
Just because someone is American, does not mean that they believe or practice capitalism. I am sorry, but I have a heard time believing that America practices true capitalism, as things like “copyright” or “patent” or “trademark” do not live in a true capitalistic environment (where monopolies are frowned upon because they aren’t capitalistic.)
I am American, and considering the fact that a sneeze in the stock market in New York causes pneumonia in many other contries, I cannot see how being entirely deluded or knowing nothing about economics has anything to do with being American.