Theft on the Net vs 'theft' by overinflated prices (Score 1)

Ooky has I think hit on the main point of this: music bought from the stores is simply way too expensive. The cost of CD's (about £13-15 over here for an album) is so inflated that people simply don't want to shell out the money to listen to all the music they want. If I had payed for all the music I've downloaded over the years then I'd probably be spending (ooh, quick calculation...) I'd imagine quite a few hundered pounds (times by 1.5 to convert to dollars), which I'm not willing to do. Also, a lot of the music I like to listen to is hard to find in the stores. Therefore, I resort to things like Napster to get the music I want without having to a) pay through the nose, and b) get a load of tracks I don't like so much. But if I really like a group, or an album, then I might go out and buy it, but only if I _know_ I like it. After all, I don't have an MP3 player, and I don't have the time to burn CD's full of music at work, so I have to get the CD of music I like, and I have no objection to this -- except the overinflated price.

<rant target="record companies"> OK, here's the main point of my post: the record companies themselves that charge such overinflated prices. I don't know what the situation is over in the US, but over here the prices of Albums and especially singles is manipuled by the record companies for the purpose of getting a track to #1 in the charts (they're done on single sales over here). Thus new singles usually cost less than older ones, just to boost sales. If record companies sold 'their' CDs for what they should cost (ie cost of production + fair royalties + distribution + advertising), rather than adding on such a huge markup, then people would buy far more music. I'm still in favour of MP3's, but not of heedless piracy (or whatever word you think I should use). Releasing perhaps 1 or 2 singles per album (and maybe previews of the rest - I know one local band that has a 'taster' track on their album which is a mix of snippets from all their tracks) for legitamite online distribution would mean that you could check out an album, see if you like it, and then go out and buy it. Well, before I run this post into too many thousands of words, I'll finish.</rant>

WireWolf
Thought for today: "Music is the voice of all sorrow, all joy. It needs no translation"
-- Helen Exley