The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 11)

br> Re: Robert VerBruggen's Ripping the RIAA : /p>

Ever since I bought my very first record in 1967 to this very day, I have loved putting all sorts of popular music together for my own personal enjoyment. First there were cassette tapes, then CDs, and now the hard drive. The hard drive is vastly superior to any format I have ever used as I can put thousands of songs in one place and divide than into categories (rock, jazz, country and classical) that I can pick as I please. I pay for every piece of music I get. I do not file share. I used to make "mixes" on CDs and give them to a few friends; but since I learned that this was considered "stealing" I have stopped.

It galls me that my pastime is now claimed to be "illegal" by the RIAA. The recording industry provides me nothing similar to what I have amassed for my own enjoyment in my own home. I paid for every CD I have and my CD collection is so large that some might question my sanity. I want to know where is the harm. I understand the record industry would like for me to buy the same piece of music over and over again; but if the RIAA is successful in its campaign to outlaw ripping one's CD onto one's own hard drive then any concept of "fair use" will be meaningless.

p>The RIAA should be very careful. If it antagonizes the very customers it needs to stay alive, then it creates the conditions for which fans will purchase music directly from the artists and bypass the recording companies. With the advance in recording technology for the average musician, this is already possible. That could well be the commonplace reality in ten years. br> -- Name withheld br> Indianapolis, Indiana /p>

I generally agree with Mr. VerBruggen thesis but diverge on two counts:

1) As a consumer I would rather see the % of dollars going to the artists increase rather than majority of it going to the Suits as it currently is established. RadioHead and the Eagles seem to agree, as both have gone "open source" to distribute their music without a major label backing them.

2) Sales figures for CD's is not the total income pool of the music industry. There is post on this topic here. But sales of everything but CD's is up. Concerts -- +4%, Single Tracks -- 46%, ringtones -- 86%, and CD's -18%.

p>The music industry is quite healthy in fact, except for CD sales. I would suggest that the CD sales are down for the following. a) Prices are too high relative to the song hits contained in it. It's why digital singles sales are thru the roof. b) DRM attempts have been damaging to that segment of the industry. WalMart in fact has insisted that the major labels drop DRM as WalMart is getting too many returns for bad product. c) Business practices that sue the customer using blind suits and third party shills does not bode well for future sales.

topics:
Transportation, Business, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Law, Africa, Socialism, Communism