[thelist] You can play a song but you can't download it

[Mattias Thorslund]

Bernardo Escalona wrote:

>Steve:
>
>True dat, you do lose some quality, mainly when it comes to encoding
>as mp3. But as you said, picky audiophiles would probably go and buy
>the record for its cd quality anyway.
>  
>

The *really* picky audiophiles complain that CDs don't have enough 
"sound resolution", and sound irritating to their sensitive ears, while 
analog media like LPs don't.

But most fans of a band or an artist are going to spend money on albums 
(if only to get the booklet with liner notes), concert tickets and 
merchandise. And most, or at least many, people who like a band or an 
artist would spend money to support them even if they could have the 
music for free - why "steal" from someone you like?

The *real* challenge for artists is to build their fan base (in crass 
terms, people who are willing to spend money), and file sharing is 
probably the very most cost-effective way to build that. But, the big 
record companies don't like that because their angle to "hook" the 
artists on a contract is that they spend money on promotions and 
marketing, and therefore deserve a major share of the revenue from the 
sales. 

This might be a bit off-topic, and I probably owe a tip by now. I'll 
think of something.

/Mattias Thorslund


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