Re: Irish Times article
Every time I read the manager talk about the evils of illegal downloading, I want to remind him of the evils of $18.99 catalog titles that lead to the illegal downloading.
Illegal downloading is pushed by laziness, John. 90% of the people I know who pirate are just lazy and couldn’t be assed paying online or going to a store. iTunes is a dollar a fucking song, how hard it is?
By the way, the new album article — “Boys Fall from the Sky”?! I’m not sure Bono was going for a “It’s Raining Men” vibe with this… 😛
Not hard at all which is why iTunes is doing booming business.
But at the turn of the century, when Napster and the like were at their height, you couldn’t buy the Beastie Boys’ “License to Ill” with a twenty dollar bill and Mtv Cribs was showing us the houses and cars of one hit wonders while we couldn’t afford to buy a record and lunch.
Illegal downloading is the reason why I don’t have a Virgin Megastore to work at, but it’s because the industry was greedy and refused to embrace the technology until it was too late not because some kid wanted to check out new music without laying down his allowance on a plastic lottery ticket, hoping that songs 2-10 were as good as track 1.
I bet those same people who are illegally downloading are paying upwards of $75 to see a concert that they will drive out to a venue and stand on a concrete floor to watch. Give them a chance to get in for free and they’ll keep their money in their pocket. That’s not laziness, it’s common sense.
Paul McGuinness is right at going after the holes in the fence rather than the people passing through it, but where was he in 2000 when Las Ulrich was going door to door with lawsuits and Universal Music was bumping up the cost per cds in a last minute money grab while record stores were being replaced by coffee shops selling four dollar coffee?
As for Bono and the Edge’s “Boy Falls From the Sky” going on the next record, I hope that Larry and Adam get a chance to play the theme from Mission Impossible II on the next tour as well!
Totally agree with you, John, except that I think the Pirate Bay generation is just as bad as the music heavies. They’re both extremes, one is ripping the artists off, the other is ripping the audience off — there has to be a middle path, but alas, that’d be too sensible and instead we get a Left vs Right polarisation. Most people I know who download music don’t go and buy the album/single if they like it, or support the band by going to gigs. I know a few musos, and they’ve been hurt badly by the internet age — they’ve tried to get savvy, and it’s stemmed a lot of the loss, but their labels won’t budge from the Dark Ages. It’s a shitty situation, with lazy thieving pirates on one side and greedy, fossilised labels on the other.
Of course, I have a low opinion of most human beings, so I could be erring on the glass-not-only-half-empty-but-a**holes-keep-p*ssing-in-it.
If anyone can forge a middle path through the piracy mess, it’s gotta be U2! I always thought Edge was more of a ninja though…
Agreed.
There needs to be a fair middle that supports the business but is not unfair to the customer.
Re: Irish Times article
Every time I read the manager talk about the evils of illegal downloading, I want to remind him of the evils of $18.99 catalog titles that lead to the illegal downloading.
Illegal downloading is pushed by laziness, John. 90% of the people I know who pirate are just lazy and couldn’t be assed paying online or going to a store. iTunes is a dollar a fucking song, how hard it is?
By the way, the new album article — “Boys Fall from the Sky”?! I’m not sure Bono was going for a “It’s Raining Men” vibe with this… 😛
Not hard at all which is why iTunes is doing booming business.
But at the turn of the century, when Napster and the like were at their height, you couldn’t buy the Beastie Boys’ “License to Ill” with a twenty dollar bill and Mtv Cribs was showing us the houses and cars of one hit wonders while we couldn’t afford to buy a record and lunch.
Illegal downloading is the reason why I don’t have a Virgin Megastore to work at, but it’s because the industry was greedy and refused to embrace the technology until it was too late not because some kid wanted to check out new music without laying down his allowance on a plastic lottery ticket, hoping that songs 2-10 were as good as track 1.
I bet those same people who are illegally downloading are paying upwards of $75 to see a concert that they will drive out to a venue and stand on a concrete floor to watch. Give them a chance to get in for free and they’ll keep their money in their pocket. That’s not laziness, it’s common sense.
Paul McGuinness is right at going after the holes in the fence rather than the people passing through it, but where was he in 2000 when Las Ulrich was going door to door with lawsuits and Universal Music was bumping up the cost per cds in a last minute money grab while record stores were being replaced by coffee shops selling four dollar coffee?
As for Bono and the Edge’s “Boy Falls From the Sky” going on the next record, I hope that Larry and Adam get a chance to play the theme from Mission Impossible II on the next tour as well!
Totally agree with you, John, except that I think the Pirate Bay generation is just as bad as the music heavies. They’re both extremes, one is ripping the artists off, the other is ripping the audience off — there has to be a middle path, but alas, that’d be too sensible and instead we get a Left vs Right polarisation. Most people I know who download music don’t go and buy the album/single if they like it, or support the band by going to gigs. I know a few musos, and they’ve been hurt badly by the internet age — they’ve tried to get savvy, and it’s stemmed a lot of the loss, but their labels won’t budge from the Dark Ages. It’s a shitty situation, with lazy thieving pirates on one side and greedy, fossilised labels on the other.
Of course, I have a low opinion of most human beings, so I could be erring on the glass-not-only-half-empty-but-a**holes-keep-p*ssing-in-it.
If anyone can forge a middle path through the piracy mess, it’s gotta be U2! I always thought Edge was more of a ninja though…
Agreed.
There needs to be a fair middle that supports the business but is not unfair to the customer.