Comments on: Piracy is Killing Music – A Big Lie?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:09:28 +0000

I’m increasingly suspicious of many internet posters claiming to musicians or working for small labels, who keep repeating the corporate line. If they won’t name their band or their label, it’s hard to prove their not paid astroturfers,

By: PaulE

PaulE — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:48:23 +0000

Further evidence comes from a recent all time top 40 chart for the UK. The breakdown by decade is as follows:
1 album from the 1960s
5 from the 70s
8 the 80s
11 the 90s
14 the 2000s
and 1 from the current decade.
On this evidence alone, you would conclude that the music industry is a thriving and profitable place. And no sign of the more recent top sellers being hit by piracy compared to earlier releases. Plus the older albums have had a chance to sell to people who were too young when they came out, and multiple times on different formats.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:17:01 +0000

And I’ve heard that story many times, and there’s plenty of evidence that “piracy” doesn’t hurt most smaller bands. Trouble is, it doesn’t work for too many of the over-hyped major label acts. The typical “firework act” (one big flash-bang and it’s all over) doesn’t have subsequent albums for people who torrented their first to buy.

From the music fans perspective, this is a feature rather than a bug; it might encourage the majors to stop signing and hyping bands who aren’t really very good. But I can understand why the majors don’t see it that way.

By: Gtm

Gtm — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:47:38 +0000

There’s a Swedish metal band about at the moment called Katatonia. A friend of mine told me they were good so I downloaded the 2 albums they had out at the time.

As a result my ‘theft’ I’ve not only paid money for subsequent albums that I wouldnâ€™t have done otherwise, but I’ve also seen them in concert 3 times (twice as the headline act and one as a support band) and even bought a T-Shirt at one of their gigs. Thanks to piracy this band has actually made money from me.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:27:49 +0000

Significant that Adele's record label isn't one of the majors. It's actually an indie label, albeit a very successful one.

By: PaulE

PaulE — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:19:35 +0000

They certainly can’t claim that the music market is fundamentally undermined if it is possible to sell historically high numbers of albums.
In 2011, not only did “21″ outsell it’s nearest rival by more than 2-1 but the earlier album “19″ was 4th best seller. Old albums can piggy-back on the success of later releases – but to that extent and when the earlier album went to number 1?
It suggests people buying who hadn’t heard of it before. Which suggests finding an audience who had not been in touch with the chart.
And this is mainstream music – if the majors aren’t keeping these fans interested then what are they doing?