Does anyone else not feel bad for the (big) record companies?
 

I had this discussion with some other people....we all said, when it comes down to it, we don't feel bad at all that the big record companies (Universal, Capitol etc) are losing tons of sales due to piracy. I've read that sales went down AGAIN this year, down to some pretty bad lows that they haven't ever had.

Yes, artists are hurt, especially smaller ones on smaller labels, but when I see Nelly and Blink 182 showing off there $10 million in houses, cars and acessories on Cribs, I feel no worse from burning their CD and listening to it. After getting screwed for so many years, spending $18-20 on a CDs in the early 90s that had 1-2 good songs, I truly am glad to see that the public has the record companies by the balls.

That being said, I've bought 10 CDs in the last few months (none over $9.99)....that is amazing considering I've bought 10 CDs in the last 3 years before that and have burned about 300 overall. If the record companies honestly lowered the prices to a reasonable $6.99-$8.99 range (or about $10 w/tax) then maybe the American public would go back to buying CDs. Maybe.

I buy about 20-30 new and used indie rock CDs a month for an average of $6 each. I'm fine paying that much, but I couldn't keep up this habit if it were much more expensive.

I don't feel bad for them because they play everything way out of proportion. Other factors are involved in their low sales as well, not just piracy. They just love using piracy as a scapegoat because it's the most obvious, illegal one to point out.

I buy the cd's I like, and I pay whatever price it happens to be. I'm not that picky, and usually pay about 15 bucks for a major label, major release. I don't mind and I buy a couple a month. I don't buy records that I don't think will be worth the full price, and if there is one that I want that might not be that great, I just get it used for 8 bucks.

I've probably downloaded about 4 complete songs this whole year, and burned maybe 1 full cd in the past 3 years.

I've only bought like 5 albums the ENTIRE year. And I have only downloaded like two songs this year as well.

Eat my poo RIAA.

I only buy used CDs (unless it's direct, like jadetree.com), and generally avoid downloading/burning music...unless it's somthing only available on import, or a really independent release.

I usually buy the albums of smaller artists and sometimes the big artists but I also don't feel bad about downloading the music of big artists either.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for their "plight".

Argh! I could rant and rave for pages about my distaste for them, but I won't.

If the film business ran things the way the music business does, they would all go Chapter 11 within a year. Actually that's probably true of other businesses, not just entertainment-related ones. The big record co.'s are models of bloat, inefficiency, poor product and poor management. They deserve all of their troubles. If they were to do just one simple thing alone, like replacing all of their A&R people with staff that actually know music and have decent taste, their projects in development would get better and they would begin seeing sales increases from that alone. That's not even mentioning severing ties or at least altering terms with corrupt media companies like Clear Channel and Viacom (the MTV-ites) and cutting away the legal filth that throw their money down an endless pit and don't affect the piracy problem whatsoever.

Kill the five! I guess it's not really the five anymore but still, no, I don't feel sorry for them.

While I don't feel that piracy is a good thing, I feel no sympathy whatsoever for an industry that promotes (for no reason whatsoever) such a limited range of barely talented artists when so many talented people in every genre are virtually unknown.

The state of the music industry in this country is pathetic. Clearchannel shares a lot of the blame, as their wal-mart mentality and bottom line only considerations have turned the nations airwaves into muzak-the next generation.

Record companies make more off music sales than artists make anyways. So your hate for Nelly and the like doesn't have anything to do with his cd sales. He makes his money like everyone else does:merchandise, advertising and touring.

I do feel some sympathy for the record labels. They are a business and they will have to layoff a lot of people this year and in the years to come. I used to want to work at a record label when I was younger, but I wouldn't want that now.

No sympathy.
They screw the majority of the bands who want a break, so they'll take any contract; most of the dollars from album sales goes to suits and lawyers instead of artists; they shove the same five bands and three styles of music down our throats, in cahoots with Sam Goody and Musicland, and how often can you listen to the same hip hop or bubblegum dance; and I still remember when CD's were going to be such an advantage because 'they will be cheaper to produce.' I'm pretty sure they've recouped the costs of the CD replication hardware, and when I can buy a brand new, hit movie DVD for five bucks less than a reissued CD, that's just sad.
I think my family has bought maybe three cd's in the past two years, and all three of them, you'll never hear on any radio station, and odds are you won't find them in any record store, except perhaps for the 'alternative' college stores, although most of those now carry stuff like Phish and Dave Matthews, which are hardly alternative.
Every industry/company has slow points where they need to lay people off; my company did that three years ago, but now we're having a banner year. You do things like that to make your business run better. If you do it early enough, or make other changes [like, say, making your product more attractive to consumers], you don't have to make massive cuts.
And I think piracy, the average-citizen-downloading-from-Kazaa piracy, is less than say 25% of the problem with sales. If they're concerned about piracy, they need to crack down on the HK, Russian mafia, and Streets of New York people who make a business out of it, not Jane Schoolgirl who downloads five Britney songs and couldn't burn a cd out of it if you paid her.

Well, dtcarson pretty much summed it up for me.

When I bought my first CD, it was $15.... 20 fricken years ago. Nice to see how the price has come down.

Record companies can kiss my ass.

I agree, dtcarson got it pretty much nail-on-the-head. I too paid about $16 for my first CD (Dark Side of the Moon) 20 years ago. However, keeping inflation in mind, that same CD should cost around $27.00 these days (I used http://www.westegg.com/inflation/) so prices are not quite that bad. Still, they could be a helluva lot lower and still line everyone's pockets considering how much CDs cost to make now. So yes, fooey on the Record Co. suits!

-Gunshy

Re: Does anyone else not feel bad for the (big) record companies?
 

I find the timing ironic that, at the same time artists are complaining about file-trading, they're also pimping their lifestyles on shows like "Cribs" and just about everything VH-1 shows that isn't the "I Love the 70s/80s."

I mean, it's really kind of hard to feel sorry for these people when you're sitting at home, watching some midlist talent sitting in a multi-million dollar mansion, surrounded by giant swimming pools and a fleet of expensive cars, and covered with gold and diamonds, whine about how their fans are ripping them off and robbing them blind.

Boo-****ing-Hoo.

I don't feel bad.

I feel bad, because it's not just multi-million dollar artists and executives that get hurt.

But then, I don't feel right about stealing from them either.

I don't feel bad for them at all.

They limit our choices to what we here on the radio, only giving contracts to cookie cutter bands that sound like whatever's popular at the time, and they've been gouging us in cd prices for years.

F**k them.

I don't download songs very often (have less than 10 on my PC at the moment, but I do have maybe 20 burnt cds that I didn't feel were worthy of buying as there were only a couple songs I wanted.

WOW!! No sympathy at DVDTalk that's for sure. The record companies admitted guilt to their pirce fixing fiasco a few years ago. That was the straw that broke my back. I REFUSE to buy any CD over 9.99 unless it is something i HAVE to have which is less and less these days. Sometimes these 9.99 CDs come packaged with an extra CD or extra DVD. Now how can these companies produce these and make money when the other artists are charging 14.99?

Regardless I have absolutely, positively, unequivically no sympathy for the RIAA and anyone related to such company. They have shown us that they ONLY care about their bloated bottom line at which they illegally tamper with. I say fight fire with fire. If they want to illegally price fix then why should not the customer do the same to them. The tables have been turned and they feel they've been wronged?!?!? PULEEAASE!!! They can shove it!! They made their bed..........they can lay in it and die as far as I;m concerned!

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.