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:: Monday, December 06, 2004 ::
It's Not About The Artists
It's about industry profits - but that's what's been said all along. A recent study has pointed out that artists (ya know, the ones who make real music) don't feel hurt over file-sharing.
[M]ost of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much.
Artists were split on the merits of peer-to-peer networks, with 47 percent saying that they prevent artists from earning royalties for their work and another 43 percent saying they helped promote and distribute their material.
But two-thirds of those surveyed said file sharing posed little threat to them, and less than one-third of those surveyed said file sharing was a major threat to creative industries.
Only 3 percent said the Internet hurt their ability to protect their creative works.
"What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is that, despite the real challenges of protecting work online, the Internet has opened new ways for them to exercise their imaginations and sell their creations," said report author Mary Madden, a research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
I'll grant that initally that CDs cost a bit to develop and the transition costs to the new medium justified higher CD prices. Today, though, it costs mere cents to burn a CD, compared to the dollars it takes to make a cassette or vinyl record, yet new CD prices have yet to come down from their orignal 1980s $17-$20 asking range. Economies of scale and newer, more efficient processes have combined to make CDs cheap, yet the RIAA has yet to pass those savings on to consumers, instead keeping the money as pure profit. That very few people, including artists, shed tears for the industry over this is not very surprising.
:: The Squire 3:34 PM :: email this post :: ::
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