Posts by James!

Re: Go Green

Green policies attract a lot of creative types - musicians, photographers, painters, filmmakers, etc. I voted Green, but I most certainly wouldn't have done so if they had allied themselves with pirates.

Re: Isn't music simply 'out-of-fashion'?

The thing is, though, people are currently listening to as much, if not more, music than ever. Music isn't less popular than before - it's just that of all the other entertainment products competing for our money, music is the easiest to get for free.

But I agree that the current climate may, in future, lead to a situation where music is well and truly out of fashion. If respect for musicians continues to diminish, there really won't be the allure for kids to create music at all. When I was a kid, it was the adults telling the young aspiring musicians that they should get a proper job; now it seems to be the other way around. In the name of justifying piracy, we cultivate the belief that musicians are greedy, out of touch, control freaks. Who would want to grow up to be someone like that?

Re: Huh

However I understand peoples anger at the excessive pricing the music industry has been responsible for especially in the 80's.

I suspect the majority of TPB's users weren't even alive in the 80s! Tragically, I was - but I still listen to a lot of the CDs I bought back then, thirty years on. Even at £15.99 for a CD and adding for inflation, that still isn't bad value for a classic Cure or Smiths album that forms the soundtrack of your youth and you can still enjoy decades later. Perhaps if today's consumers owned less music they might learn to value it more?

Misguided

First you say it's scary, and then you say it won't make any difference? Can't have it both ways.

And why are you still talking about DRM, or price, for that matter? Sounds like you haven't visited a digital store in a while. I haven't bought an MP3 with DRM in years. Certainly there's no DRM at Amazon, Play, 7digital, Bandcamp, Juno etc, so that's just not a valid argument anymore. I see brand new digital albums at £5, with no DRM; and many classic CDs for £3 including delivery. If you don't think a fiver is a decent price for an album, you really have no idea what goes into making one.

It's idiotic and self-defeating to say "(we) will continue to pirate whatever we choose"; if you choose to pirate, the creatively gifted people of the future will choose different career paths and the quality of new music available, either for purchase or pirating, will be greatly diminished. It's just plain short-sighted behaviour. So here's a thought: instead of spending your time downloading music made by artists you evidently have no respect for, why not instead do something constructive, like supporting DIY or independent bands who share your ideals, or better yet, go and create and market something yourself and show everyone else how it should be done.