Topic: Music piracy unstoppable, Universal admits

[Clive]

The world's largest music company has admitted that piracy cannot be stopped.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10117199.stm

[sam]

well they should start realising the way to make money is advertising....  follow the google/facebook model! 

Oh actually what the artists should do is drop the big companies, run their own torrent servers and just live off the money made from gigs, surely that's their main source of income anyway?

[Simon]

They don't seem to be doing too badly out of it, do they?

[Sandra]

Back in the days when we had really good music they used to reckon that money made from touring only broke even. The advantage was that it promoted their new albums which increased record sales, as that was where they made the cash.
I suppose that now with legal and illegal downloads and good quality copies so easy to make from friends bought cds, the balance will have swung back in favour of live performances generating the most income.

[sam]

live performances have been their main revenue stream for years... maybe not the made up pop acts - but proper bands, definitely.

Back in the days when we had really good music

hmmm... twas better in the past again??    There is lots of great music out there. then again there is a pile of s**t coming out the place across the way from me.... f***ing restaurants. Might have to go show them what I think of it in a bit....

[Rodders]

I would think the main source of revenue for the major artists is, currently, PRS royalties from radio plays.  This isn't a bad thing at all, since it ensures that artists who played no part in the creative process will starve to death.  It's just Nature's way of ridding the world of Pop Idol 'stars'.

Whilst Touring is a brilliant promotional tool, it's very hard work and doesn't show a huge amount of profit once the costs have been taken into account.  As regards the sale of media in the future, my personal feeling is we'll eventually end up being legally and technically restricted to using some kind of subscription-based online music and video delivery service - and once that happens it will no longer make economic sense to produce any physical media at all.  Whereupon CDs, DVDs and BDs will go the way of the Roger Dean album cover and Piracy will again be punishable by death.

Just my two penn'orth.

[Simon]

hmmm... twas better in the past again??    There is lots of great music out there. then again there is a pile of s**t coming out the place across the way from me.... f***ing restaurants. Might have to go show them what I think of it in a bit....

I'm with Sandra here.  It's better now than in, say, the 80s and most of the 90s, but you really have to go looking for good music these days.  I used to buy three or four CDs a week, but now I'm down to two or three a month, and they are mostly from old bands.  The latest is a 2009 live CD from the reformed Ultravox, which is surprisingly good!  

I think there was definitely more invention in the 60s / 70s, and a good majority of today's bands are influenced by the music of that era.  The Black Parade album by MCR was very 70s influenced, and is one of the best rock albums of the last decade, in my opinion.  There isn't really anywhere to go with music these days, as it's all been done, so there's not really anything 'new' on offer, it's just repetition, and some of it is still good, but you won't hear it on the radio.  

[Simon]

I would think the main source of revenue for the major artists is, currently, PRS royalties from radio plays.  This isn't a bad thing at all, since it ensures that artists who played no part in the creative process will starve to death.  It's just Nature's way of ridding the world of Pop Idol 'stars'.

If only!   

Whilst Touring is a brilliant promotional tool, it's very hard work and doesn't show a huge amount of profit once the costs have been taken into account.  As regards the sale of media in the future, my personal feeling is we'll eventually end up being legally and technically restricted to using some kind of subscription-based online music and video delivery service - and once that happens it will no longer make economic sense to produce any physical media at all.  Whereupon CDs, DVDs and BDs will go the way of the Roger Dean album cover and Piracy will again be punishable by death.

That would indeed be a sad day. 

[Clive]

I attended a dinner-dance a couple of weeks ago and the guests comprised of a very mixed age group from late teens to octogenarians.  The band was a retro group which played only 50's and 60's music yet the youngsters not only danced to them but they knew all the words!  It's not the first time I've seen that happen.

[Rodders]

I did a stand-up comedy routine for a group of octogenarians last night.

They didn't really get the jokes, but still p*ssed themselves anyway.

 

[Simon]

 

[Clive]

   Oops!    

[Rodders]

Quick, nurse!  The screens!   

[Rik]