Musicwars

[Powerflux]

Was anyone else watching that yesturday?

I was pretty cool, but I don't think it helped much in finding a sweetspot between the people that download most if not all of their music and the RIAA and those that buy tons of CDs.

My solution would go something like...

Internet P2P would be the same as MTV or the Radio, good for publicity but you don't make tons of money off of it.

Instead the artists would make most (or a large portion of their income) by doing live tours. They'd also have to make sure the tour was really awesome so tons of people would want to attend, market it so that people 'will have a night to remember' because of the awesomeness of the show/performance. Nothing can replace that. (Well... maybe true virtual reality will but that's a whole other subject.)

[Slamz]

That's what I'm saying. Penny-Arcade linked several places that offer either encrypted P2P services or an untracable network that routes all requests through other computers with no tracelog so it's impossible to tell where a request is coming from or going to.

RIAA can't fight it, CD's are are a horse and buggy in the era of the Model T.

Musicians are going to have to learn to use the internet as a promotion tool, and concerts as a way of making money. Just like movies, people will ALWAYS pay for a concert or a chance to see a movie on the big screen, but you won't be able to limit information exchange through the internet because technology will just outpace any attempt to stop it.

Book authors probably have more to worry about than musicians.

[Moristans]

Book authors probably have more to worry about than musicians.

Yah think?

I'm a pretty avid reader and I couldn't imagine the internet in any incarnation replacing a good ol' fashioned book that you can toss into a bag and read at your leisure. Sure, I suppose you can print out an entire 3 volume novel if you are so inclined, but there is still nothing like a nicely bound hardback for a true reading experience.

[GreenTurnip]

Not that I would prefer this... but my brother has all the Lord of the rings trilogy and a few other books on his Pocket PC. He reads on that just as if it were a book.

[Slamz]

Yeah, digital books have some advantages. Like the ability to search! (Especially like the Wheel of Time series, which is huge, and tends to bring up names from like two books ago where I'm thinking, "Who is this, again?")

But like music and movies, once something is in digital form there's no way you can regulate it's distribution without straight up searching someone's computer, which you can't legally do.

[Sigmire]

As far as electronic books go, I do not see it becoming as popular or as much of an issue as music and movies (and software?). Well, at least for a long while.

I'm one of the ones that couldn't read an entire book electronically for enjoyment. I probably could do a software manual but not one for pleasure. The electonic text would just make my eyes tired and hurt. I couldn't get involved w/ the story.

I agree in that they're not going to be able to stop the sharing of music since as soon as they shut 1 down, another will start up.

Really, it's mainly music that's the issue because when it comes to movies they bank on the Theatre sales, not DVD sales and rentals. Have you seen pirated video taken from a prescreening? It sucks. Seeing a movie in a theatre is a very different feel and experience than seeing it in a home, even if you have the overly large screen and uber surround sound. It's just not the same.

Music industry needs to utilize the internet as a promotinal/marketing tool and make money other ways. Basically what Grumples said already. In all honesty, it's not the Musicians that are getting hurt by online music trade, it's the record companies. Why? Because the actual artists barely make money off of the record sales (unless they go double platnium or somesuch) and make the vast majority of their cash from concerts. It's always been like that, it's not a new concept.

heh :twisted: