Comment Re:Well, piracy hurts real people. (Score 1) 405
But... those businesses, along with buggy makers, liveries, etc., were faced with competition from a different form of the same industry. The buggy maker competed against cars. They are both transportation, and the other businesses were support systems for the outdated method of transportation.
Now, the music companies are competing with a new form of the music market and they are fighting it rather than adjusting to it. They are like the buggy makers who had money and influence who got laws passed that required a car going through town to be preceded by a person on foot with a flag - they tried to make it too hard to use a car so they would go back to the horse and buggy. It didn't work then, and it isn't working now.
CD stores are the modern day equivalent to the blacksmith, buggy whip makers, or more directly, the dealers that sold buggy's. When the business you are supporting goes under, you're going to go under with it. It's sad, but that is the way it is.
The music companies in many cases fed the piracy movement. By disallowing the ability to purchase only the songs someone wanted, they encouraged people to find other ways of getting that song. Why spend $20 on an entire CD when your friends are telling you that there are only one or two good songs on it? Or, you've listened to it and only like a couple of songs?
I've been a computer consultant for 20 years. My business today is far different than when I started because I had to change and adapt with the times. When I started out, most of my money was made by building PC's and selling them locally. At the time, I could sell if to double my cost and they would save almost half of what an IBM would coat. Now, Costco sells the whole system with monitor for less than what my cost of the parts would be. So... I adapted my business to survive. Other consultant's I know just complained about Costco and are now working for them, or Best Buy.
Quit whining and figure out how to adapt your business or accept the sad truth that you'll have to shut down and do something else. That is the way it has always been in a capitalist system, and that's the way it will always be.
I'm sorry about your business - I truly am - but putting your head in the sand and blaming everyone else isn't going to bring customers back in. Advertise theme nights where you play CD's from certain types of music, mixed in with the popular bands so people will hear music they didn't know about and buy the CD. Sponsor dance parties at a local club and set up a place to sell CD's with that genre of music there. Hire a good marketing person to give you ideas if you can't think of them yourself.
Good luck, I hope it works out for you. Nobody likes to hear of a family losing their livelihood and home.
Now, the music companies are competing with a new form of the music market and they are fighting it rather than adjusting to it. They are like the buggy makers who had money and influence who got laws passed that required a car going through town to be preceded by a person on foot with a flag - they tried to make it too hard to use a car so they would go back to the horse and buggy. It didn't work then, and it isn't working now.
CD stores are the modern day equivalent to the blacksmith, buggy whip makers, or more directly, the dealers that sold buggy's. When the business you are supporting goes under, you're going to go under with it. It's sad, but that is the way it is.
The music companies in many cases fed the piracy movement. By disallowing the ability to purchase only the songs someone wanted, they encouraged people to find other ways of getting that song. Why spend $20 on an entire CD when your friends are telling you that there are only one or two good songs on it? Or, you've listened to it and only like a couple of songs?
I've been a computer consultant for 20 years. My business today is far different than when I started because I had to change and adapt with the times. When I started out, most of my money was made by building PC's and selling them locally. At the time, I could sell if to double my cost and they would save almost half of what an IBM would coat. Now, Costco sells the whole system with monitor for less than what my cost of the parts would be. So... I adapted my business to survive. Other consultant's I know just complained about Costco and are now working for them, or Best Buy.
Quit whining and figure out how to adapt your business or accept the sad truth that you'll have to shut down and do something else. That is the way it has always been in a capitalist system, and that's the way it will always be.
I'm sorry about your business - I truly am - but putting your head in the sand and blaming everyone else isn't going to bring customers back in. Advertise theme nights where you play CD's from certain types of music, mixed in with the popular bands so people will hear music they didn't know about and buy the CD. Sponsor dance parties at a local club and set up a place to sell CD's with that genre of music there. Hire a good marketing person to give you ideas if you can't think of them yourself.
Good luck, I hope it works out for you. Nobody likes to hear of a family losing their livelihood and home.
