U2 ALERT -- UPDATE: FIRST TWO LEGS OF TOUR ANNOUNCED

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Pay for something????

Are you FUCKING CRAZY???

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Utterly beside the point and immaterial to whether one is stealing or not.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

How can anyone even quibble with a syllable of this?

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

I can quibble with it just fine.

The industry doesn't need to do a damn thing. If you're not willing to spend the money the artists feel their music is worth, don't listen to the music. Unless you're the head of the record company, you have no right to try to set what someone's work is worth.

Illegally downloading music is just selfishness. Those here who say it's fine should try working as a freelancer once in a while.

I'd love to see these folks tell me they're happy after spending 10 hours writing a kick ass feature used in newspapers across the country without them getting paid for their work. I'm sure they'll change their tune then.

I also get the feeling that the "Oh, but artists make it up by touring" crap would go out the window if it applied to people here and was instead turned into "But you also work 40 hours at Taco Bell so you get enough to pay your bills so you should be happy to write for free."

Touring has nothing to do with the issue at hand here which is making music. That's like saying paying to have your oil changed entitles you to a free set of new brakes and a new alarm system.

Grow up and pony up the money these artists deserve.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Bullshit. Record companies should not charge even close to the same amount for a 128kbps digital download as a lossless CD with liner notes, etc., which costs significantly more to produce. They're not the same thing.

Look, it's obviously wrong to illegally download music -- to suggest otherwise would be, as Simon says, inarguable among the sane. My quibble is more with the business model, which has to adjust to the changing times.

The game has changed, and they need to adapt. Downloading has changed the way I get my music in that I rarely buy CDs anymore. I pay for the vast majority of music I download, mostly through eMusic, but I cannot justify spending $10-15 for an album, so I very rarely buy major-label stuff. (Note: This does not mean I steal it; I simply don't obtain it in any manner, in most cases, because I can't justify the cost).

I would, however, be happy to buy a lot more major-label music if digital downloads were offered for $3-5, like the U2 album I purchased yesterday. I'm guessing there are a lot of people like me who would buy more music if the price of downloads was more reasonable. Maybe the record companies could offer inexpensive digital downloads but coax fans to buy hard copies by offering bonus tracks or bonus DVDs when you buy the "real" CD.

The way I see it, the recording industry is responsible for a lot of the illegal downloading, in the same way newspapers are responsible for a lot of their problems, because they didn't see the writing on the wall and try to adjust. (Another note: I'm not saying it's OK, just saying they could have stemmed the tide with some smarter decisions). Instead of embracing downloads and trying to capitalize on the ability to distribute their work in a new, cheaper format, for a new, cheaper price, they allowed downloading to become the business of pirates, just like newspapers let the internet become the domain of bloggers, et al.

But no, they had to try to charge full album price for downloads that were/are of a lower quality and encoded with DRM limitations, which understandably pissed people off. Now it might be too late to unring that bell.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Apple has eliminated DRM from the iTunes music store.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

It's about time.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

I agree.

I was agreeing that the shit is overpriced.

But you can't steal it.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

But if you agree that the shit is overpriced, then you don't agree with schieza, who thinks "you have no right to try to set what someone's work is worth." Last I checked, that's exactly what the supply-and-demand curve is all about.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Not by stealing it, it isn't.

You can not listen to the music... THAT's your vote that brings down price.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

Agreed.

I still call bullshit on anyone who thinks it's OK to get a burned copy of something from a friend but not OK to download from a torrent, though. Same thing.

 

Re: U2 ALERT -- Amazon offering full new album download for $3.99

I downloaded it from Amazon. I"m not blwo away, I'm still waiting for the U2 moment to hit. Kind of boring, glad I just paid 4 bucks for it.

As far as buring a copy of a CD, as Bon himself said when they talked about copying albums onto tapes in the 80s, i'ts not home taping that's ruining the music industry, it's crap music. I have a TON of albums I recorded from my friends in high school. That's about the only way we got exposed is to buy and trade music. So I'm not crying a river for U2.

However, I'm listening to Neko Case on Sounds Opinions, and can't wait to get her new album. I'll buy that one at full price.