The music industry is quite crazy. For years they have been milking us like cattle. They continually tout illegal ripping of CD’s as the main reason for their high price. This seems like a nice cop out. Its in their interests to keep the price high because there is always a base of people who buy CD’s regardless of how easy they are to copy.
There are 3 types of people.
1. People who buy CD’s
2. People who buy CD’s and also accept illegal copies.
3. People who deal mainly with illegal copies
I am one of those Tyoe 1 suckers. People of Type 2 would be more likely to become Type 1 if prices where lower. The people of Type 3 are unlikely to mend their ways unless prices drop significantly but there will always be a pirate market its the size of it that matters.
I like to own the originals but prices are extortionate and illegal copies are looking very tempting. I buy a CD every couple of weeks and always look for the bargains, rarely will I ever buy a CD that costs me more than £8 (still expensive). One exception was a Metallica’s Black album that cost a wopping £15. I really wanted it so I had to take another shafting up the arse from the industry to buy it.
When I come home I burn the CD then put it back in its case for safe keeping. I need to do this because CD’s are so bloody expensive and CD’s get scratched. I also like to have them on my mp3 player for the train journey to work.
We now have Copyright protected CD’s which means I am not able to make copies of them. I know I can copy them but its against the law to make a copy for my own use, this is a pile of crap. I for one will not be buying any Copyright protected CD’s. In the age of MP3’s there is really not much point in owning a CD that you cannot copy so why buy it. Then of course some players won’t actually play these CD’s.
I think the music industry are hanging themeselves. They are making it harder and harder for people to use the music the way they want it and more an more people are sick to death of paying high prices for it. They need to make the prices low enough so that its not worth the effort of burning them when you can get them for next to nothing.
There will be a loser in this war and I can guarantee that it will not be the public. Music is getting easier and easier to get hold of or copy and prices are not going down so its only going to get worse. Its about time the music industry realised that you can only shaft Joe public for so long before it all goes horribly wrong.