Re: [LAU] OT - Digital Rights

On 10/24/2011 08:37 PM, Paul Davis wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 1:13 PM, alexander<axeldenstore@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>
>> All it takes is a revolution of the mind.. these things takes a long time
>> tho.. and all the anti piracy fud/propaganda wont make it faster...
>>
>> Imo it's absurd that you can charge 0,89€ for a locked down mp3 and get away
>> with it.. I mean, the profit margins are 100%.. or well, they start out at ~
>> -99.999...% and rise, approaching 99.99999999999999...% the more people who
>> buy it.
> what an interesting claim. perhaps you explain to me how it is that
> this is for sale at (typically) US$0.49 per track:
Didn't know about that place. Perhaps digital copies will slowly go down
to sane levels..
> http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/Global-Illage-Sushilove-Sessions-MP3-Download/12031810.html:
>
> and yet I'm still several thousand dollars in debt from the process
> that led to its creation? (this wasn't supposed to be a blatant ad,
> but if it turns out to be seen as such, my apologies).
Well in the worst case it's because people simply don't like it.. but
then, what is good music? I've pondered about this on a personal level,
and I can honestly say that I still don't know what makes me like a
certain song or band.. also, when making that. Did you expect to make up
for the production cost? if not, the whole money issues doesn't really
mather.. or perhaps you made it to make money? in that case it's all
about marketing and making simple music that sounds like the stuff you
hear on the most popular radio stations, but mostly it's really about
getting known.... If you are really famous, you could probably sell your
own poo on ebay and make a living out of it.

> you seem to have this idea that every piece of recorded music always
> makes enough in sales to pay for its production. i can't cite anything
> right now, but my impression is that the opposite is actually more
> correct - a (huge?) majority recorded music never makes back its
> costs. that's why major selling albums were so critical to the
> recorded music industry of the last 50 years.
>
> this is partly why businesses like emusic and itunes are so ideally
> positioned: like the major labels of the past, they don't have a stake
> in whether or not any particular album/tracks sell particularly well,
> only that the overall aggregate sales from their catalog are high,
> since they take a cut on every sale. they don't care if the sale was
> Yet Another Lady Gaga or Maestro Boris and His Yucatan Yodellers.
> better still, they don't even face any of the costs of producing
> Boris' music, so even if it never sells a single copy, its not an
> issue for them to list it (their marginal cost is close to zero). the
> financial risks they face are almost entirely related to technology,
> fraud and large scale deals with distributors - their risks from
> actual sales numbers are minimal.
>
> all of which means that you need to be fairly careful when you say
> things like "the profit margins are 100%". there's more to recorded
> music than selling/distributing it. it has to exist first, and this is
> not a zero cost activity (more or less).
And that is why I also said; "..or well, they start out at ~ -99.999...%
and rise, approaching 99.99999999999999...% the more people who buy it."

note the minus there infront of the first 99.999...% And yes I get your
point that not all songs rise above 0% and here again lies that crucial
questions of what makes a song sell, and if you make (record) music to
make money or not. Live gigging is a whole other topic, cannot be copied
yet... intelligent holograms anyone?

The thing that bothers me with the current approach is that the price is
set just as it was physical things that we sell, but it isn't. I mean I
understand that the price for an actual CD can be 10-20€ but with
digital distribution there are so many middle hands and steps that
simply can be bypassed. On the otherhand I don't live in the world of
commercial music so my opinion doesn't really mather, my music
http://sharpattack.bandcamp.com/ ;D will be free at least for the time
being, till I actually learn how to properly play the instruments and as
I look for my sound... Will never cost 0,5€ per track tho, the financing
schemes I've been interested in are name your price @ 0 - unlimited, or
somekind of 'buy out system' or some really advanced 'song share holding
system' that I pondered about some time ago. Where the first few buyers
pay alot and as more and more people buy into it they get their money
back :P
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Received on Tue Oct 25 00:15:04 2011