Music downloads .... who is the thief ?

[Lion]

Woow.

What one word stealing can do.
People jugde your life style etc they even don't know me.

I buy music if i can money wise.
No money can't buy music simple like that.
I man is not that greedy to download what i not have.
You can't have everything you want.

PLAY MR MUSIC PLAY.

Lion

[Sir Marvin]

Downloading certainly affects the music industry. It has devastating effect on sales for... Madonna, Jay-Z, U2, Sean Paul, y'u know, the majors. Most of the artists discussed on R-A, are not majors. They were coming from small caribbean island and played somewhat obscure ethno music. There's very, very limited market for such music. The ordinary youths (or consumers)of today are not interested in old music hailing death ethiopian leader... It's appealing only for some madmen (including myself), so called serious collectors. I think, that 'serious collectors' in general use to spend all they've got to buy music, so compamies like BAF don't suffer so much from downloading. And there's even higher number of 'conscious'(download-if you like-then buy) downloaders.

In this one concrete case, it's very much because of their demise of quality. Their latest releases are plain average or 'non-adding-so-much-value'. An avarege album with nice cover art and informative linear notes is still an average album...

Reissuing of the music is a special branch of the industry. It's relatively cheap to put out an album full of already recorded music. I do have some re-released albums with hardly existing linear notes and reproduced original cover (I mean on the backside). So, who's the thief-the company, that put out such crappy product, or the one, who downloaded it?

[rasdragon]

A little thought, reissue companies often buy the albums outright for a small sum of money from the producers not the artists. Then when the cd is issued the only one making any money is the owner of the reissue company, not the artist, not the musicians, not the producer.
I know some LPs have been bought for as little as 4000$UK & i am pretty sure the companies have made a few more pennies then that off alot of these issues.

[collu]

It is not MP3 that devalue a piece of vinyl,it is re issues that do the most.Even then it can be argueable

A true collector doesnt worry about meaningless,chunks of data,either devalueing their vinyl or sharing it with the masses.Peace.

[Rootsgal]

Excellent post. I know of a very loved roots band that produced a CD through Media-Com. It is for sale on Amazon.UK. It was released 18 months ago and they have not received a bloody dime of money and no luck getting anybody to call back to discuss the issue.
Exploit is terrible, relentless and very frustrating for the artists.
Thanks for your post, I agree with you 100%.
For new artists with no label, I think selling through www.earbuzz.com or www.cdbaby.com is a better way to go.
100% of profits and a small yearly fee of 50.00US. I have bought through them many times and then I email the artist.

[psilomadman]

Obviously this is a touchy and tricky subject.Personally, I enjoy downloading podcasts to hear new and old reggae I would not have otherwise heard. Kramer's Dubvortex at podomatic was awesome till it dissapeared. There is a degree of thievery here, but in my case it only exposes me to artists I may never have heard and causes me to buy more legitimate CD's of the artists I truly love. Since I started downloading the podcasts I have purchased legally, Heart of the Congo's, Abysinians "Satta Massagana", 2 Black Uhuru discs, EEk a Mouse, 2 Culture discs, Wailing Souls, and a King Tubby disc as well as some Im sure Im forgetting. Sure I burned the podcasts to CD and listen to them as well, but I find for me that downloads stimulate the actual buying of discs that i would not have known about. The quality is so far superior on a properly produced disc compared to MP3 that it is worth it to me for that alone. I noticed that when I burned some tracks from Heart of the Congo's in MP3 format for a compilation disc I was making for a friend that the difference in sound quality was such that I trashed the disc and reburned with WAV format with much better results. I find that when I make a compilation for friends it stimulates them to buy legitimate releases as well. I realise i am rationalizing to a point, but my "illegaL" activities create more legitimate business than if i refrained. Of course some will only take what is free, this will always be true. Remember the "mixed tape" (cassete)? Music has always been available for free (taping the radio and editing tapes). Ethically there is no simple answer, reality requires we each think deeply about what we are doing and define what is right and wrong. Sorry if this seems a bit disjointed but its no easy subject. Artists have an unparraleled opportunity to sell direct in todays marketplace and hopefully this will be the wave of the future.

[rootmanxy]

What do you think, should I stop broadcasting pieces of music on this site?
http://rootsmanx.podomatic.com/

(not to be mistaken with rootsman who has posted earlier, sorry I opened the podomatic account before I spotted your name on this forum)

I had a similar discussion with Algoriddim some time ago. Asked him why he was broadcasting sometimes allmost full catalogues of artists. He responded to me that he was never broadcasting the full tracks and he was convinced the stimulating effect it could have on people to listen to additional material of the artist. I truly believe him. On the basis of his broadcasts (Phase 1 and Leroy Smart, I could not resist running to the record shop again to purchase stuff I overlooked during my previous visit).

I got the impression that people never willing to pay for music, will only download. In most cases these people do not love music anyhow and loving reggae is even a step further.

Especially in the country I am coming from (Netherlands) reggae is not played on the air anymore. It even led to a temporary desinterest in roots music from my side for some time, but thanks to the internet I am discovering new artists and labels again. The result, I am running to the record shop again or ordering stuff via webshops.