This from Engadget.com:
Has it really been a quarter-century since the first compact disc was pressed, finally freeing us from the infernal routine of rewinding our mix tapes? Well sure enough, Philips was kind enough to inform us that its very first CD rolled off the production lines on August 17th, 1982, which history will forever remember -- perhaps unfortunately -- as a copy of ABBA's "The Visitors". Nonetheless, this first widely-produced optical disc format would end up changing our lives forever, ushering in the era of lossless copies, easy music sharing, and an unwanted little friend we've come to know as DRM. Now with some 200 billion discs having been sold worldwide -- and probably twice as many distributed gratis by AOL in its dial-up heyday -- it would seem that the original shiny little platter is unquestionably in its golden years, with more convenient or capacious formats replacing it on almost every front. So Philips, the readers and editors of Engadget are proud to join you in saluting the revolutionary product you helped pioneer -- and also offer our condolences that things, um, haven't worked out quite so well for you in the transition to MP3.
So Robert Fripp got paid a reported USD $100,000 (other rumours say USD $150,000) to record for four hours while some idiotic marketing jackass stands around saying things to a guitar player like "play something that says 'groundbreaking... easy to use... friendly...'"
Don't believe it? Here's the evidence. Turn up the sound and laugh your ass off as poor Mr. Fripp has to put up with a marketing idiot.
Robert Fripp - Behind the scenes at Windows Vista recording session
So first off, let's do the math:
The average CD of an average big label band, not huge but selling enough, might cost between USD $100-200K to record, produce, master, etc. before sending it off for duplication. Say the record label decides it will sell OK so prints 100K copies. Industry reports indicate that an average CD costs about $0.33 to produce, and with all the overhead of shipping it to stores and that crap, about $0.65 total to get to where it can be sold for an average retail price here in Portland of USD $20-22 per CD.
Now let's look at the movie industry. An average "popular" movie put together by a movie house costs about USD $100 MIL (that's right, 1000x, that's "one thousand times") as much to secure rights, actors, film, edit, print film (which is still extremely expensive) for theater shows, but ultimately ends up on DVD where people will pay $1.99 to rent it for three days, and usually $20 to buy it, with almost all but the most popular titles dropping to about $10 price per DVD, which costs, by latest industry numbers, twice as much to manufacture and distribute as a CD.
And the music industry blames piracy for their woes, while the film industry sucks it up, accepts that the video game market grosses more $$$ than they do, and they write deals with those same video game makers for film rights.
But the music biz continues down its cocaine-laden path, unflinching unwilling to accept that copying CDs has been easy as hell for over a decade, and tries to charge double the retail value for something that costs 1000x less to make. Huh?
Their latest blunder has been to go after Internet radio, in particular Live365 and SOMA FM in S.F. Live365 has been losing money although not doing too bad for years, and SOMA FM gets by on donations and has never been about nor will turn a profit. But these addled coke-addicted burnt-out never-beens are so desperate to find $$$ for their next fix that they decide to sue Internet radio broadcasters, most of whom do not make $$$ and have no advertising, and have little by way off assets, but who have been keeping the music biz alive by introducing new artists by producing focused, genre-specific, commercial free radio, thus creating a new and rapidly growing fan base, many of whom go out and buy CDs (at least half of the CDs sold on my own tiny label are from people who heard the music on Internet radio.)
At the last minute, they come up with some sort of pseudo-reprieve, giving people who have no $$$ until 2010 to pay up millions or even billions of dollars of fees, with tacked on fines and interest. Here's the latest news from Wired on it.
Um, earth to coke-heads, come in music biz coke heads. Suing people who don't have any money will not do anything but waste everyone's time and money, as well as shut down one of the few positive things going on in the music field that has produced actually sales.
Like the old saying says, "You can't squeeze blood from a stone", but these old-school 1970's losers are still trying any way they can, not realizing that they're just digging their own grave deeper and faster.
What's the solution? Give artists more independence, sell CDs for $5 a pop and still make probably a 200% profit per CD sold, and make it easier for people to buy CDs than pirate them. By the way, some nice packaging, like the old gatefold LPs with a poster - ever think of maybe adding a little value? With two point font lyrics and three mini-pages of thank yous (always starting with "God", 'cuz, you know, the creator of the universe really gives a shit if Eminem makes USD $10 or $15 MIL this year, yeah?) - well, damn, just how stupid can you get?
After this latest move, I think I have no problem comparing myself to the Founding Fathers and calling for a revolution (esp. since every other white person around seems to compare themselves to Rosa Parks or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for any reason they can think of) in suggesting the following:
1. Buy music, shirts, and see shows directly from the bands themselves. Avoid buying any music on a major label.
2. Support your LOCAL record store, and stay away from the big ones. Tower's gone, let's see the rest crumble.
3. Pirate all the music you want. That's right, steal it. Steal the stuff on my label. Go for it. Until the business changes, keep hitting everyone until it hurts.
4. Refuse to buy anything with DRM (Digital Rights Management). Sorry iTunes fans, but hold out and find MP3 copies, or use software to strip that crap out of there until they stop adding it.
5. Keep going to the theaters and buying DVDs. Show that the film industry has it figured out, and support them. Pay for your MP3s and anything that isn't protected and is reasonably priced. Support Internet radio and send $$$ to the stations that cater to your tastes, and let the free market decide who lives and dies.
I hope to be starting a new full-time job soon, and I'm sending 50% of my first paycheck, gross, to the following:
http://somafm.com
http://stillstream.com
http://live365.com
http://last.fm
http://kmhd.org (Portland Jazz)
"You say you want a revolution, oh well, you know... we all want to change the world..." - and we can, if we all pull together right now.
(My apologies to The Beatles for dragging them into this.)