smileynev said:
Put yourself in the position that the recording companies are in. They lose millions upon millions of dollars each year because little teenage pissants can get online with mommy or daddy's computer and download the latest Britnay Timberlake album. It wouldn't matter if the CDs were a better value. They would still steal because then they wouldn't have to pay a penny. They would just steal the entire album instead.
Do you complain to your car company if you're in a fenderbender and you get a few scratches on your car? What about your laptop manufacturer if you drop your laptop onto the ground? No? Of course not, because these acts are beyond the expected feasible usage of such items. Take good care of your CDs.
They respect their paying customers. Pirates are not paying customers.
Well I'm a paying customer. I buy CDs all the time. Only because they're such shitty fucking quality, I burn them into my laptop and listen to the MP3s instead of the cd itself. That way when I play them I don't have to worry about the air in the room scratching the surface. I seal the "masters" in blocks of resin to prevent them moving and thus being completely destroyed.
CDs suck. And music companies suck. If people want to steal shit, they will. It doesn't matter what steps you try to take, it will happen. And the point is, you don't penalize all of your customers, including the innocent paying ones, because those others want stuff for free. And honestly, I can't blame them.
Not only can I not remember the last truly awesome album I purchased, but I find the product of CDs themselves to be faulty beyond reason. A scratch-proof resin coating would work wonders. Oh, but that isn't entirely cost effective. The extra 2 cents it would cost to produce those CDs would affect the company's bottom line. Thus they continue to screw and disrespect their customers.
And also, don't ever believe a record company that says "OMG we're losing trillions of dollars to piracy." They say that by ESTIMATING the number of songs that are pirated, and multiplying them by the average cost of what that song or album would be, mixing in other meaningless variables as well. The whole process is so vague it's a fucking joke to begin with. There is no possible way to calculate what purchases they are actually missing out on, especially when every pirate I have ever known still buys CDs.
I've done some scientific statistical analyses of my own.
The last song I downloaded was on Kazaa, 3 or so years ago before everyone started crying about legality and all that and I stopped. (this no shen) I've purchased around 450 CDs since.
Thus I conclude the following:
1) I have averaged 150 albums per year over the last 3 years.
2) The recording industry sells 45 billion cds per year in the U.S. alone (150 albums * 300 million citizens, because if I am buying that much, everyone else is buying that much too.)
3) The recording industry's gross income is $540 billion per year. (45 billion cds * an average of $12 per cd.)
4) The recording industry is not financially hurting in any way.