[lostpossum]

It has definitely created a huge drop in albums sales.... But here's the thing... CD's are MUCH cheaper to make than albums or cassettes, so why has the price steadily gone up? We know that albums can be sold cheaply. Go to Target, they sell new albums for 6.99 sometimes... So it's possible to do it. And sure, they are probably not making much off those records, but....

The focus needs to be shifted away from the industry and back to the bands. There is no other business that I know of, that deals like the music industry. If I make chainsaws, I build them, and ship them from my factory to each and every retailer... From me to Walmart, and that's where you buy it.

The music industry makes my album, then ships it to a distributor, who buys it, then they mark it up, and sell it to retail. Why do we need the middleman raising the price? Why should they get a cut of my art?

If we could go out and buy an album for 8 to 10 bucks, more people would buy more cd's. Period. Who wants to pay 18 dollars for a CD, I sure don't.

Number two... Less shitty music. If we have one stupid pop princess, that's enough. This is totally the labels' fault. It makes sense when you hear U2 or Springsteen say that if they came out today, they would never make it past one album. Labels never think longterm anymore. I give you William Hung...

I think the idea of file-sharing is a cool idea. But it's just been used in the wrong way. The bands should have taken control early on and set the market for what was being traded... Offer free live songs, or unreleased tracks here and there. But instead, they all sat back and didn't know what to do. And just waited, got mad, and tried to fight it. All that does is piss off your fans.

I've seen several bands more than once. I have their albums, I have bought T-shirts, etc... And then there's Metallica. I have always somewhat liked Metallica, but I never bought any of their early work. And I never planned to. Instead, I borrowed all the early stuff from a friend and burned it. (for the sake of the argument, let's say I downloaded it all) Now that I have heard it, I am more apt to go see them live. And I never would have before.... And I might buy a shirt, and I might also buy their next album.

Had I not gotten a copy of their music, I wouldn't consider any of this... So, are they losing??? Or are they winning in the long run?

I don't agree with downloading everything. I am a music fan, so I buy albums... I will continue to do so, as long as decent music is coming out. Most of the people who are downloading, are just casual listeners, who would never buy the stuff anyway.

I have been to a few people's houses and seen the playlist on their computers... It's crap. You could pop a tape in and record the pop station and get the same effect.

I would imagine this is the majority of the downloading that's going on. "I want this song by that guy, and this song by that other guy" blah blah....

The best way to fight this, is by offering better music at a better price. And by giving the artists more control and more profit from the sale of their music. The industry is slowly starting to do this. Bands are now including bonus stuff in their albums, DVD's, etc...

It is slowly headed in the right direction, it's just a shame that they only move defensively, and never offensively. Why do it just to slow downloading, why not do it to reward the people who support your business... Without consumers, you have no music industry.