theworldofdreams.com

Ehran wrote:back in the early days when i had my C64 i used to be hooked up with some fellows who had all the new games weeks before they were in the stores. at one point the game companies were spending as much money on copy protection as they were on the games. to no avail might i add. one company went so far as to burn a hole with a laser in the floppy which returned an error when it was read. someone beat that in under a week. there are a lot of very bright lads out there who just love copy protection busting as a sport of olympic proportions.

The point being, spend time making a high quality game and most people won't bother jumping through hoops to illegally copy it: they'll be more than happy to pay a fair price for it. (Key word being "fair.") And that's what the problem has been with online music. I'm more than happy to pay for music, but I'm not downloading DRM-riddled files that won't let me move my music to other computers. And for a product that contains no physical media or artwork, $9.99 is still too much money for an entire downloaded album. iTunes is the best out there right now, but it's not perfect. Right now I the best solution I've found are used CD stores: I get the physical CD, get to rip it to the format of my choice, and I don't give any more money to the RIAA.

I say download as much as ye can, to the nine hells with the music industry. They have been gouging us for as long as I can remember. A concert costs generaly @25 bucks for a ticket, a drink at said concert goes around 3 to 4 for non-buzz rendering, to the outlandish amount of 25 bucks for something in the high test arena. Beer is a flat 7 bucks for a 16 oz. Shirts, now there is a money grabber, 38 bucks for a shirt, 10 bucks for a stuffed bear, 18.50 for a program ect... The ticket price is general admision, meaning you can pay upwards to 150 buck for seats under the pavilion. And to top it all off, this album that they are so worried about us downloading costs us anywhere from 15.99 to 24.99. Actual cost to make said album is covered many many many times over. I don't give to farts if Metalica can afford to get one of their cars waxed because I or anyone else took their song without paying for it. Also it is your right as a consumer to back up the music you legaly purchased. They have NO RIGHT to prevent you from copying it to your puter or another cd. I praise the hackers and whackers out there who work the end game to break their codes. YOU GO BOYEEEEEE (and girls)

Artists really don't make much money on album sales if any at all. The record companies gobble that all up. It's in concerts, dvd/video releases (not mtv videos), and merchandise that they make all their money.

Think about it, the Stones put on a show at MSG and sell it out at an average ticket price of say $100. With upwards of 20000 people that can fit into MSG, that's a gross total of $2,000,000 for one night. Of course Mick and the boys don't see all that, but after expenses and a 50 city tour, that is still some big cash flowing back into them.

I don't think it's fair how the RIAA has gouged us on the prices of cd's though I'm also not fond of downloading the music for free.

I think Laephis has the best idea and that's using used cd stores to fill a collection. Also there's always eBay for cds, but you run the risk of buying a copy anyway.

PoMal

edit: grammer