http://torrentfreak.com/is-piracy-reall ... no-100418/

An interesting article which basically makes the recent passing of the Digital Economy a waste of time and effort.

Piracy isn't killing anything

They said tape recordings would kill the industry, it didn't
They said Napster would kill the music industry, it didn't
They said bittorrent would kill the industry, it hasn't

The only thing these things have done is actually encourage people to try new music or bands that they usually wouldn't listen to.

There have even been surveys that show those who 'pirate' more music are actually bigger spenders in terms of proper purchases and live shows/merch than those who don't.

I know compared to my gf and her sister I buy a hell of a lot more music than they do, I also download a lot more before I decide if I wish to support the artist, if not I delete it. I also go to more live shows and buy merchandise there, well used to, not had the time this year simply

I think the article also hit upon the option of buying only the tracks that people wanted meant that they could get away with buying 3 tracks rather than the whole album. It showed that Germany where CD sales are more prevalent has fallen much less than the US even while they may both have the same levels of piracy. They cannot blame iTunes either because the industry started compilation albums and that cannibalised album sales long before file sharing.

I dunno, for a kick-off maybe they could stop effectively giving radio stations set play lists so that older or newer, more talented artists could raise revenue for them. You know, as used to be the way? Before the likes of Sith Cowell fcuked it up?

Many playlists are decided on by the radio station itself. The commercial radio stations pick very commercial acts anyway because they want to have popular music that will get the advertisers. Radio One should be different but they can be just as moronic in their playlist attitude.

I remember chatting to Mark Radcliffe at a book signing some years ago and he told me that when he was on Radio 1, he got roughly one song an hour to play of his own choice. Everything else was defined by the station's playlists.

Jon

I don't know what happened. We appear to be surrounded in a nation of people who can't hear, because after listening to the top 30 count down (from 30 to 1) yesterday on Radio 1, I can hostly say it's all a load of rubbish, not only did I not like any song (which is understandable), but they all annoyed the heck out of me.

Is this what getting older is all about!?

*Fetches pipe and port to calm down*

Welcome to Team Grumpy

Welcome to the real world. I have to listen to students radio about 10h and nearly took out my own head a few times... I'm over with Lady Gaga and Avril Lavigne amongst others

Maybe it's because you're not an uneducated moronic pleb with no future? You don't fit the stereotype this music is aimed at...

The radio stations used to have far broader playlists. Then some years ago Radio One went for a much narrower playlist. Whole acts were discarded as musically irrelevant. The Simon Cowell influence I suspect.

I'd love to see how many of the so-called "singers" today can actually perform live. To me it's all over-produced, repetitive, boring....yawn...

I was talking about music with my guitar teacher last night and we found a site which had the top singles for every year since the 1960’s. You can see the variety tail off as the 1980’s developed. For example, in the 1970’s you’d have a mix of disco, metal, rock, folk as well as more “plastic” pop, with punk appearing in towards the end of the decade. Over the 1980’s you could see New Romanticism taking over from punk, and the inevitable rise of electronica and manufactured pop. As we got closer to now, you’d see the variety of acts tail off.

Imagine this: in 1977, the theme for Close Encounters of the Third KInd was in the top 10. A full orchestral scored theme like that would never make it into the charts today.

Yes, I think I’m well in team grumpy.

I would not include electronica in the downfall. It started in the 70's and took off in the eighties, but I would accept that manufactured pop was a crucial reason. Acts that were promoted to kids and even did gigs at schools really scrapped the barrel. I would suspect that CD sales are still good amongst the older audiences but downloads dominate the younger crowd.

Music today isn't completely crap. It's just that Radio 1 and plenty of other stations play the same stuff all day every day. There is good new music out there, it's just not on the radio or in the charts. As I quite often remark to younger acquaintances of mine, "You like it because you're the target demo". Black Eyed Peas I used to enjoy, Will.I.Am is a decent producer. His work with Sergio Mendes was great and he's produced a lot of other good music. But lately the BEP are just outputting stacks of [LIFTED] for 12yr olds (and drunk teens and 20somethings).

As for piracy, I've done it. But usually to try something out and discover new artists that I've been recommended. I still buy CDs. I don't have iTunes, or use any other download service, because the quality is crap and I like having a hard copy. If every download moved to FLAC or WAV and I could afford the HDD space, I'd probably do that.

Is piracy killing music? No - mp3s are.