| Total Responses: | 817 |
| 1. | smaller artists may not make it rich, but the labels peddling them will |
| 2. | BS |
| 3. | While the rest of the industries have commensurately reduced costs when their resources and materials have dropped costs, MPAA and RIAA affiliated companies are still out there raping the public trust and manipulating the numbers and judiciary to match their Orwellian version of what happens when Johnny doesn't buy an Nsync cd. Listen, maybe the reason why we don't give a crap about the loss of sales, is that all too often, we know how the recorded artists were screwed over by manipulative and power-hungry recording Companies. I have friends in bands. I have had friends in bands. I buy their cd's when they make them. I recommend them to friends.
The days of doing that are becoming slimmer. The new venue is and should be, live performance. I will pay 5x more for talent and showmanship.. and be glad I did. |
| 4. | I don't see how private jets, excessive bling, and Ferraris are fallacious (note: MTV Cribs). But more importantly, artists cannot be rich because that is a violation aesthetic principles. |
| 5. | There is still a shit-ton of money being spent on CDs. If artists aren't getting rich, it's because their labels are ripping them off. |
| 6. | Very few artists made, or make, money due to very one-sided contracts. COmpanies used to make lots of money but are now suffering due a changing market. |
| 7. | the labels still overcharge for goods and take way too higher cut from sales, the artists earn the money on tour and with merchandise |
| 8. | Its bullshit because the RIAA has been raping artists since the beginning. No shit artists arent getting rich off their albums. They get rich off merch and touring because the RIAA has their hands down deep in the artists pockets. WTF does it cost to produce a cd? Maybe 75 cents? At a time I purchased 2-3 cds, albums, cassettes a week. At $18+ for a cd they are out of their minds. Why is it after 20 years of the compact disc prices are going up and not down? |
| 9. | big 4 doing less well (i.e., profitable, just less than they want); artists doing fine -- smart ones doing better |
| 10. | If I like the music I download, I'll buy the CD. If they would put out better music, I might buy more CD's.... so once they stop putting out utter shit, I'll fork over some cash. |
| 11. | Two words... MTV. Cribs. |
| 12. | Most artists don't seem to be making a whole lot of money from their records. The music industry can afford to put Tommy Lee and Co. on TV to find a lead singer for a band of has beens, but still claim the sky is falling. Bunk. |
| 13. | Bands make the most of their money from concerts, tv performances and the like. They are still getting rich regardless of music sales. |
| 14. | The Record Company is Obsolete, the internet is the new distributor, and if artists were distributing on the internet they would receive 100% of the profit from the music they sell. at this rate, an artist could have 9 pirated albums for every legitimate one, and still make more money than they do now. |
| 15. | False |
| 16. | Sales have declined for CDs while digital sales have skyrocketed. The change is a natural state of the technological progression towards a digital medium. Further, the "Napster Age" showed the highest music sales the RIAA has ever seen, before Napster and also after their destruction. |
| 17. | The record industry is making money. I always see articles reporting "record profits". What they want is a "pay-per-listen" business model and that is being soundly rejected by their customers. While they aspire to absolute control, their actions are just causing customers to look for alternatives (both legal, ie Indy music or"illegal", ie file sharing. |
| 18. | The record companies are making more than the amount of money they deserve. Frankly at this point they deserve to be bankrupt and dumped in a sewer being raped by cockroaches. |
| 19. | The Record companies are continuing to steal from the artistis, forcing them to give away rights to their original works for next to nothing.
Now they have turned this same abusive attitude on their own customers. They deserve to be put out of bussiness. |
| 20. | They don't pay their artists anything and rip them off. They have been ripping off artists and consumers for years and are still doing very well. |
| 21. | The artists aren't being hurt. I's just the record companies whining about their lost profits. |
| 22. | The industry puts out shit and its artists get rich , the smaller labels with bands with an ounce of integrity get poor but because of financial muscle from the likes of emi - it isnt lost on people that many of these companies can be tracked back to other bastardopolist industries. |
| 23. | P2P does not make a large enough dent in the industry. Besides, I like to "preview" an album before I purchase it. |
| 24. | That music shared over the internet is just serving as a means to further popularize an artist and that people will still shell out cash for an album if they really like the artist |
| 25. | They system is biased to the record companies, not the artists. The new system could benefit the artists more, and ideally, could reduce or eliminate the need for the big record companies. |
| 26. | Recording companies seem to scam artists for the majority of the profit. Apparently most artists only make minimum wage. |
| 27. | The RIAA and member corporations are making strong profits at the expense of their customers and the artists that provide the content. |
| 28. | They're still making millions are they not? If they weren't they wouldn't be able to afford all the luxuries us normal people can't afford. All they're trying to do is get more and more while the rest of us have less and less. |
| 29. | Downloading a digital copy of anything in itself causes no financial hardship to the recording industry. It duplication and transmission of digital content by file sharers costs the recording industry nothing. The only loss you might be able to attribute to file sharing is the loss of potential sales, which is minimal. Personally (and I know I'm among the majority here) my music collection wouldn't be so much as a tenth of the size it currently is if it weren't for file sharing; I wouldn't have purchased the vast majority of the music I have regardless of whether I file shared; I simply don't have the money. Therefore, the industry has not lost any potential sales, and is no worse off than if I, and most others, didn't file share. |
| 30. | If all the money the RIAA has spent trying to terrorize had gone into the creation of a progressive, modern digital music store, I wonder where they would be now... |
| 31. | I think the RIAA is missing the plot. They have an opportunity to embrace but instead have their head in the sand. Just look at what's happening to net radio - I have bought so many CDs from listening to pandora and now that is being killed.
Oh the stupidity...
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| 32. | Recording artists and record companies are still some of the richest people out there. |
| 33. | Adapt or die, if your financial model isn't working, change it.- |
| 34. | The RIAA is into Rackateering and should be shutdown by the government... Also there should be a campaign on the WEB to get the word out to everyone to stop purchasing all of Sony's products not just there BMG stuff... And all the other companies involved with the RIAA If everyone stopped purchasing all sony products for 1 week that would send a huge message to them.... If they do not stop the RIAA BS then people should stop for 1 month and so on.... I gaurantee Sony would stop the RIAA BS then... So lets do it
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| 35. | Truth: The record companies are still making tons of money. They just fire people to insure their profit margins. When the company is too small to 'cut', they sell to a larger record company that merges the 'value' into their model, and dumps the 'spare parts'. Then they do the same thing. On and on, until the industry dies. ARTISTS BE DAMBED. |
| 36. | Partly true in that plenty of money is still being made however there is less revenue now and probably the weaker artists are the ones who will be affected the most. |
| 37. | The record companies are still getting ridiculous amounts of money, and they artists are getting enough millions to comfortably support themselves for life. If these millions aren't enough for them, then they clearly are more obsessed with money than making music, and i don't want to buy anything from them. |
| 38. | Executives may be seeing a hit, but artists have never been paid what their handlers are. To say that the artists in the industry are suffering is ludicrous. The concept of ownership of music by a company is anew concept, developed in the 20s with the advent of recorded music. Prior to that no company owned the artist. I believe we are just naturally returning to that golden, and better age. |
| 39. | I think that they make enough money. |
| 40. | Music artists make next to no money from album distributions anyway, if anyone is losing money, it's simply the people who've been cheating the artists all along, and the people who should - and will - be phased out. Online distribution is a godsend to independent artists. |
| 41. | Quality music earns money. If they want to earn more money, they need to stop the blame game and make a quality product. |
| 42. | they still make money |
| 43. | The artists make money by playing live shows. |
| 44. | The RIAA is merely trying to control a major technological shift in the market. Their traditional revenue-generating activitiesare becoming outdated, and rather than embrace a new model, they are applying protectionist tactics to preserve the old one. |
| 45. | I think that although there has been a decline in recording industry profits, much of that is due to the industries refusal to take make digital media freely available at reasonable price and quality. |
| 46. | Fuck the RIAA |
| 47. | I still think the record companies are bloody rich and the artists are hardly struggling given the lives they lead |
| 48. | Record sales are at all time highs... Artists are still getting paid for their work. File sharing has increased popularity of the product. |
| 49. | RIAA made DRM! I can't even put the music I bought on my Zune or Cell phone! I have to buy it 2 more times. That makes no sense... I'd rather just download it.. so now I do. |
| 50. | The money stays in the Recoding Industry and is not transferred to artists like it should. |
| 51. | The record companies have been charging consumers high prices and cheating the artists for a long time now. Even artists have spoke out and agreed with this. |
| 52. | Whether artist are getting rich or not has nothing to do with file sharing, the recording companies take all the money from them. They are greedy corps thats what they do. |
| 53. | Record companies are still turning a profit. People are sick of paying for a CD that's contains a single "good" track and a bunch of filler tracks. And popular music really hasn't done anything new or interesting in 15 years. |
| 54. | It's not the artists who are getting rich, rather the companies themselves . |
| 55. | RIAA is killing music and themselves..won't be long now...has more to do with their consumer-hostile business model rather than file sharing (symptom) |
| 56. | plenty of people are making money off their top 40 songs but the real artists are touring. |
| 57. | The record company is filled with suits who don't do anything. They rape the artists and attempt to keep everything for themselves and cut out the musician as much as possible. I'm blown away that artists even sign with major record labels, but than again we definitely have a society that's domininated by morons. |
| 58. | The RIAA has failed to adapt and instead has tried to rot the justice system from the inside by making threats of legal action. The RIAA has less chance of surviving as Jack Thompson has of making any sense. |
| 59. | The record companies are making money, if its not as much as they want perhaps they should have embraced technology in the Napster days instead of trying to sue it into oblivion. The music artists are also getting screwed but not by the "downloader" but instead by the RIAA who shares $0 from the lawsuits they are persuing. FUCK THE RIAA! I would rather mail the artist a check since it would actually go to them. |
| 60. | are musicians making music to get rich? or to get fans? |
| 61. | Record companies make too much money, artists make more than they should for the amount of work they put into it but at least they are working compared to the RIAA leeches. |
| 62. | People are being exposed to the mass amounts of music out there and developing massively eclectic tastes which only fuels the music industry. Personally, in the last three years or so I've opened my music taste to a broad array of different genres. Before I was into mostly mid 80's to mid 90's west coast rap, now I'm more into punk, reggae and hardcore. You don't hear those genres on the radio and you don't just buy random CD's but with file sharing you can download everything and listen to everything. If you don't like it, you're not out anything and you just delete it, most people who sample music and enjoy it will probably go out and buy the CD. Bands are gaining fans because of file sharing, pure and simple. |
| 63. | Seems they are all still bling, blingin'. They have plenty of money for lawsuits. If the record companies wouldn't put out so much crap they wouldn't have to cover the costs of all the crap they are producing. |
| 64. | - If these "artists" can't make any money, even though the music industry is billions, then perhaps there's a problem with all the middle-men. Besides, I don't believe it. Struggling musicians are nothing new. Ones that make it big get big money. Nothing there is different now then it ever was. |
| 65. | If sales are falling, maybe it's because they produce crappy music. |
| 66. | The royalties paid to artists themselves are abysmal; most of the money from incredibly over-priced garbage discs sold these days go to the media conglomerates that publish them. |
| 67. | theys makin ass loads of moola |
| 68. | These guys know that they cannot uphold an antiquated system of property rights if the people have the technology to subvert their extortion. But they're either unsure of what to do, or they are squeezing the last minutes out of their old ways. |
| 69. | I mean, BLOODY HELL i dont see Eminem or Linkin Park complaining about living in poverty |
| 70. | RIAA is in it for their cut. They are pushing a failed business model and instead of shifting, have decided to build a moat and etrench. |
| 71. | RIAA is the one taking money away from the artists. The big companies have to pay RIAA so that is money out of the artists pockets. |
| 72. | Record companies need a new distribution model: downloads like iTunes |
| 73. | Most artists are starving, because they're not famous. Those same artists are also the ones that wouldn't mind being shared just to gain the exposure they need to be famous. The big artists are the ones that people share, and they are filthy rich. The day I see artists like Britney Spears and Metallica driving around in beat up old vans, and eating top ramen is the day that I will stop sharing music. The record executives are still making huge salaries, and I haven't heard anything about Sony BMG , or any of the other major labels, filing for bankruptcy. |
| 74. | If they are getting rich the why are their houses on TV and why do they keep making music? because they love it? no because they get rich |
| 75. | The record companies are still making their money, the artists are getting screwed. |
| 76. | the artists make more money with concerts and merchindise |
| 77. | Everyone is getting richer!!! Artists and Companies. |
| 78. | Music is something very worthful. Perhaps the way of earning money with it is not the way the RIAA tries it with. |
| 79. | there are many other ways artists make their money, merchandise and concerts for example |
| 80. | A few of the top artists are making it rich .. the others are not; thats the recording industries issue and has nothing to do with Music Sharing. |
| 81. | that they get paid wayyyy too much |
| 82. | If record companies were in fact being "devastated", as they claim, then perhaps their business model might have changed in response to it. |
| 83. | Question is too complicated for me to answer I don't know what you mean. |
| 84. | Record companies are having no problem paying rent and raping artists. File sharing has done nothing to discourage the rich big wigs in charge of Columbia and Virgin. |
| 85. | total fabrication record companies are still getting rich, the artists are just getting ripped off |
| 86. | lying so they can get their way |
| 87. | If it was $8 a cd, and not $18, maybe I would think about buying few.
If it was $15 a video game instead of $60 a video game maybe I would think about buying a few. |
| 88. | I see the record companies still pulling huge profits. |
| 89. | RIAA = Whores |
| 90. | The RIAA is lying |
| 91. | lies |
| 92. | The artists get little to no money from album sales anyway. The RIAA is the only group losing money at this juncture. |
| 93. | If they weren't making money the suits would be gone and the Big 4 after them. |
| 94. | Failed model that is a monoply |
| 95. | I believe the artists who are making the songs are still getting paid fine. the middlemen may be receiving a little less. but a loss of business revenue should not be blamed solely on illegal mp3 downloading. Look at the market conditions, look at the quality and restrictions on what is available. |
| 96. | The musicians are still becoming millionaires on an almost daily basis. I think the RIAA is using this as platform to line it's own pockets with money. What is the salary of the president of the RIAA? |
| 97. | artists live on a shoe-string, and the sound engineers, band managers and label workers life filthy rich. |
| 98. | The record companies are still making money -- it's just that they cling to supporting a business model that is increasingly obsolete, thus wasting much of that revenue. As for the artists: yes, some are still getting rich... but the REAL money lies in going on tour, NOT in album sales -- and that's the way it has ALWAYS been, for the entire history of recorded music. |
| 99. | I see that the artists still aren't getting money; the RIAA and the labels are taking 98% of profits. |
| 100. | Ugh how? Are you fucking serious? |
| 101. | It's the RIAA ASSHOLES who are ripping EVERYONE including consumers, record companies, and artists. FUCK THE RIAA!!!! DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!!! |
| 102. | The record companies may be losing some money, but it isn't due to file sharing, and the artists are still getting rich and pampered. |
| 103. | They are still making a lot.
For labels, I'd say a lot more than they deserve.
Labels don't contribute any value on the internet and they want to keep outdated system where they do in place using lawyers. |
| 104. | Record companies are making their money, and the artists and the RIAA are still getting rich. |
| 105. | I do not believe that their current financial situation would be any different if all music sharing were suddenly ended. Possibly it would become worse since they have seriously alienated their potential customers. |
| 106. | Just as they've always been, and many of these artists are filthy rich anyway. |
| 107. | The RIAA was ripping them off to begin with, and they've never gotten what they deserve, now they just get a tad less |
| 108. | Their earnings may be marginally less, but the industry profits are bloated to begin with. |
| 109. | I know numerous people who work in both the film and music industry on different levels. Talking to all of them, they say that there is very minimal change in their industries. Instead, the change really happens with people trying to break into the industry. Labels are taking less risk in signing bands, so the only one who is really hurt are those that are not signed, and since they were not making money before, there is no damage done. |
| 110. | The recording industry is all about packaging and marketing, not about true talent. Sharing files is actually in the interest of artists, since it gives them exposure. Artists make their living by performing (a product they can control), not recording (a product that greedy businessmen control). |
| 111. | They still make money off of advertising endorsements, t-shirts and other products, concert ticket sales, etc. |
| 112. | The "middle men" are losing money because they are no longer necessary. Bands can promote themselves online and no longer need the infrastructure of the major labels to suceed. |
| 113. | We all know that recording artists still only make cents on the dollar for every CD sold. Where does the rest of the money go? Right into the record companies' pockets--where it's always gone. |
| 114. | well you watch vh1 all you see is all this artist with big house big jewlery big cars I dont see them starving just alot of greed |
| 115. | They are dinosaurs rampaging on an old business model which assumes lower consumption, harder information movement and an ability to prosecute against the exceptions. In stead, they obvliviously exist in a high consumption (desire), easy information movement environment and are only creating enemies in their failure to adapt. They could be providing mechanisms to improve music, its publication, its exposure and findability. Instead, its SPAPP suits. Old companies, old men, old minds, old ways. Dying dinosaurs. |
| 116. | They're still raking it in - just smaller margins than they were used to. |
| 117. | Dude, if Brittney Spears can afford a 30k rehab, the record industry is doing just fine. |
| 118. | Executives and artists both are making insane amounts of money. It's been known for years that the companies were involved in price fixing on CD's and were never brought to justice because of it. |
| 119. | They are still making money by altering the law to enforce a flawed business model as well as taking advantage of the new business models. |
| 120. | artists and record co.'s have made there money off alot of older songs long ago and should sell catalouge music for reasonable prices like allofmp3 does. as for new music when you download there is no transportation costs or retailors taking there cut so record co.'s should be able to sell music at reasonable prices like allofmp3. if prices are reasonable people will purchase more music.and everyone is happy! |
| 121. | most the money goes to the excutives |
| 122. | They are the real bastards doing the robbing. There was a nice article written by Courtney Love on this subject. |
| 123. | They make way too much money to start. |
| 124. | If I were to download music, that does not mean I would buy less music. I buy the same as I always have- very little. I find prices of music from big labels in shops extortionate. I tend to stick to buying from small indie labels now. No thank you BPI and RIAA! You aren't getting my business with the way you treat consumers. |
| 125. | RIAA lying as usual. |
| 126. | They're still rich, getting richer, selling overpriced products, and sueing harmless file sharers. |
| 127. | There have been countless studies that found that file sharing's effect is statistically close to zero. Record companies and artists are still getting their money with or without "piracy" in similar quantities. Which, by the way, I don't care how many people you sue, there will always be some piracy going on because of new technology. Plus, this isn't capitalism! Capitalism is competing with other businesses to get the most profit and ending up with the best deal possible for BOTH the consumer and business through creating quality and ingenuity from competition pressure. NOT FROM SUING THE ASS OFF OF ANYONE YOU DISAGREE WITH. |
| 128. | they get money just for shitting in a certain toilet. |
| 129. | The Record companies are making too much of the money and screwing the talent over! |
| 130. | Artists get rich off of concerts. That will always remain. Money is still being made and I think that the industry needs to adapt to the changing market. |
| 131. | They are still making enough money. |
| 132. | The market is flooded with music. There are so many more independent labels than there ever was...and these indie labels are making bigger and bigger waves every year. The wealth is being distributed more, and the RIAA doesn't like that. Basically, they're still making their money and still screwing the artists. It's just now they have someone to blame and excuse their poor business practices. |
| 133. | That the people are getting rich. But there is nothing wrong with getting rich, I don't see why they have to claim that they don't get rich if that is indeed what they are claming. |
| 134. | The music industry as a whole is in pure denial that the internet has change the world. They want to exempt themselves from the inevitable fact that the internet has altered the economics behind every industry on the planet. Do you think stockbrokers ever thought they would see $5-$10 trades? Or that insurance companies on the east coast ever thought they would have to compete with companies on the west coast? There's a lot of fat that can be trimmed from the music industry. They have too many hands in the pot to be able to embrace the efficiencies of the internet. Once that fat is trimmed the industry will embrace the internet as it is inevitable. |
| 135. | The recording industry is still making huge profits. |
| 136. | lies propogated by the RIAA to allow them to make more money via an easy avenue. Afterall, artists receive very little money from the sale of cd's which are so heavily over-priced. If they offered high quality (lossloess) drm-free downloads, I would stop file sharing, and buy the downloads - but not while the quality is so poor and I am unable to use the downloads as i wish. |
| 137. | Though artists are still making money they are making less. Also many people other than the top stars (struggling early musicians, sound engineers, etc) will disproportionately suffer from the loss or revenues caused by online music theft. |
| 138. | The RIAA, which adds no value to the actual process of delivering art to the masses, is continuing to profit by guarding its outdated business model. |
| 139. | Record companies are still making money. Always will... |
| 140. | money grubbing bastards |
| 141. | It's a bit hard to tell from the way you have worded the question if you are asking if it is true that RIAA is saying this or if I agree with the statement. Assuming you are asking do I agree with the statement I do not. I think that artists get lots of publicity from more sources than ever and more of the lesser know artists are getting this publicity also. And the result of the publicity is profit to the artists as well as all of the middlemen. |
| 142. | They are overpaid. |
| 143. | I'm pretty sure if the artists were living in 2 bedroom apartments in the middle of St. Paul Minnesota, we'd all know about it. They are constantly on television, with million dollar jewelry, five thousand dollar dresses, and the RIAA is trying to tell me that a record and a movie take the same amount of effort to produce via the similar pricing. |
| 144. | How can they 'appear to make money' and simultaneously not make money? What were they smoking when they said that? |
| 145. | the labels arent making thier money, aka the executives, otherwise the sound recording guys, the guys in the booth are still getting paid, the artist still gets paid, still makes most of his money from touring. and instead of making an "estimated" 100 billion they only make about 80 billion and are forced to cut juniors allowance by 20 grand. |
| 146. | They are still very rich... |
| 147. | RIAA is taking most of the money for their own greedy selves and only giving the artists a mere fraction of each dollar. |
| 148. | They are still earning money, why would they otherwise fight so hard... or have the funds to do so! |
| 149. | Electronic distribution is the future, and the slump of sales from the record labels is from falling behind the new technology. |
| 150. | I don't think the artists were ever getting rich in the first place. All the RIAA and the record industry care about is putting money into their own pockets -- not the artists. |
| 151. | the RIAA need to stop sanctioning the ripping off of the music buying public. More people would buy music if the cost was more reasonable...All of MP3 is testament to this theory... they have a duty of care to the music buying public just as much as the artists and industry workers. |
| 152. | They must be cooking books if that is true, which is HIGHLY illegal...
music piracy, serious business. |
| 153. | the RIAA is going after people like the mafia.. and the RICO and HOBS acts both clearly outline repeated attacks on people as violations of those laws and yet the courts want to side with the RIAA.. Lawyers better understand black letter law and follow it to the letter, as corperations do and so does the RIAA, which means lawyers that are defending people better understand black letter law not case law. |
| 154. | I only see few starving artists out there. If they have talent, they are found and properly sponsered. Besides the fact, most artists out there I personally listen to are in it for sharing their music, not making a bunch of money. It all comes down to what's more important. |
| 155. | Few artists are actually getting rich. Many don't make it, and this probably has always been so. The record companies, however, still make lots of money - maybe slightly less than they used to, that's why they complain. The artists, though, see only a tiny fraction of what the record companies make from their music. |
| 156. | they need to change their business model -no up front advances eg robbie williams $80 million -i dont think so, try for a percentage of sales robbie |
| 157. | Artists should be getting a bigger cut of their work |
| 158. | The record companies AREN'T still making their money. Revenue and profits are falling. Artists signed to major labels ARE making less money because of piracy. Quite simply, people steal music...meaning the people who make music make less money. It IS that simple, and it is true. |
| 159. | the music companies are making too much margin, are not prepared to adapt their business practices, and are trying to legislate to maintain the status quo. |
| 160. | First, there's no shortage of obscenely wealthy music artists and music company execs - second, web distribution at cost or free DOES NOT HARM BUSINESS IT HELPS IT. See publishing business for examples. |
| 161. | Music should be free, they earn enough on Radio broadcasts / concerts. |
| 162. | p2p file sharing doesn't hurt artists, if you really like a band you downloaded, you would go and buy their album to support them. p2p makes it easier to find new music and helps you preview an album, because if you buy it at the store you dont know if its good, and returning it is kind of hard once you open it, so downloading it is easier. |
| 163. | Money just doesn't go through the RIAA/MPAA anymore... |
| 164. | Fat cats still getting fatter, unlike independants, which is why I buy from emusic. And I'd like to pay alofmp3 a bit more, but I'll never buy from I-tunes etc.l |
| 165. | sharing benefits the artist driving more traffic to their web page and concerts. |
| 166. | Everyone, even downloaders, still buy music. Therefore, the artists are still becoming wealthy. |
| 167. | The contracted artists and record companies are still getting rich. It may not seem that way to them because their idea of "getting rich" is so absurdly skewed and out of touch with the incomes of other musicians and with the incomes of most Americans. I believe that there is room for everyone in the music industry, and I think it is fantastic that the money to be made is no longer going to be made a few privilaged sell-outs and their pimps. |
| 168. | Record companies make a mint (as always) and artists don't fair too badly either - a LOT of music is still bought and downloaded and a few sharers will not cripple the industry. |
| 169. | EVen though CD sales are down, plenty of money still flows into the music industry not just from music sales, but associated revenues.
Were the RIAA to cease and decist throwing away money for frivolous law suits, this would surely leave more money for artists. The actions of the RIAA do nothing to suggest that they are in any way fighting for the cause of artists, but more that they are pursuing their own hidden agenda. |
| 170. | It's a control issue. |
| 171. | Record companies are still making money. Only the biggest, most successful artists have ever really become rich, everyone else just lives in debt to the label. |
| 172. | They're still making money. Sure they may have lower sales than a decade ago. But they've got an outdated business model and poor logistics. Customers that used to buy music CDs, now rather spend their money on movie DVDs for more entertainment value for their money. |
| 173. | I see both record companies and the artists as being too rich for their own good. And how can you say those impressions are "fallacies" when the artist(s) sing about all their Rolls-Royce's, Bentley's, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and so on, and so forth? |
| 174. | The companies still make rip-offf money through the CD's they do sell. |
| 175. | i am gong to answer anyway, sharing a file one has bought is totally different than hacking into an online music store and taking it, once you buy the product, cd, song, it's yours and you can share it however you want No one is stealing, No one is saying that they made the music, put it together, sung it, etc.. Everyone is just making a copy and giving it to others, however I would Agree that in the end if someone DID steal the CD from the record shop or hacked into an online store, sure I agree they should be arrested, for more questions out of me, email palmonezire31fanatic@yahoo.com. |
| 176. | As long as artists want millions of dollars for only a few albums and record companies are able and willing to pay, things can't be so bad as the RIAA claims. Give me some value for my money (not just a cd in a cheap case without anything else) or give me legally downloadable music without that DRM-crap at a reasonable price. 2$ per song is ridiculous. |
| 177. | The are a bunch of liars |
| 178. | They have plenty to buy cocaine |
| 179. | They make huge amounts of money from things other than direct sales. |
| 180. | I would say certainb artists are getting rich at the expense of other (perhaps) more talented artists |
| 181. | The music industry is still making it's money. It could be doing better by investing in true artists rather than the diva of the week. |
| 182. | music industry is changing, the consumer is now in power |
| 183. | The publishing company gets most of the money anyway.
It is the publishing company that is losing % of their money.
Sure if band X would normally see $100 but because of file sharing only sees $70.
thats a 30% loss
But if the publishing company would normally see $1,000,000 but because of file sharing they lose that same 30%
but for the publisher, that 30% is a loss of $300,000
The publishers would hurt WAY more than artists. |
| 184. | File sharing is having a mixed effect - reducing CD sales, but also increasing awareness of unusual music, and RIAA has failed to implement business model to take advantage of technology without garbage DRM. |
| 185. | The RIAA needs to embrace the changes the digital music and sharing and purchase of it on the internet. Stop crying and get with the program. If they don't they could see the end of their industry as the artists that have the ability to do so start producing and distributing their music themselves, which would probably be better for fans of music. The public knows that the music industry has been ripping off both it's customers and it's clients, the artists, for much too long. |
| 186. | the rich like getting richer |
| 187. | I don't really care if they are making money or not. I don't want to be treated as a criminal if I take music I purchased and choose how I want to play it or share it. |
| 188. | There is a huge disparity between rich successful artists and struggling talented musicians. The music industry needs to examine itself before blaming others for its own failings. |
| 189. | The large record companies are still making their obscene profits and the musicians are still receiving their small payments. |
| 190. | Record companies and artists ARE STILL getting rich. Sales have come down because everyday because artists and music in general is sucking badly. |
| 191. | I buy music that's worth paying for all the time. Most of the shit released today isn't worthy of Muzak in an elevator. |
| 192. | if the labels would release good WHOLE cd's at a fair price as well as pay the artist a decent royalty rate? then maybe i'd consider purchasing a cd. Otherwise? i support artists that make good music through concert tickets and concert merchandise (my understanding is the bands make more profit through that method than they do from cd royalties |
| 193. | File sharing would affect mainly the hugely popular artists which I do not believe are being hurt financially. Further, the record industry would be better served by recognizing and adapting to changing culture than promoting fear mongering and maintaining ridiculous marketing and pricing structures. |
| 194. | They are richer than ever |
| 195. | i buy more cds and dvds as a result of downloading. if i could only listen to things i had bought i wouldnt know about lots of new acts and films. |
| 196. | The minority of big selling artists are still making lots of money and the rest are still struggling. Hard to see what has changed. |
| 197. | Artists and music industries still make more money than the average man. |
| 198. | The corporate people are still making their millions no matter what! Do you really think the artist |
| 199. | Record companies still want to get rich by vastly overpricing products. They refuse to listen to customers, treat artists poorly and keep bringing out reissues at high prices. |
| 200. | Copy righting a sound is absolutely useless. I understand if you want to make it that you can't copy a sound though- I mean, fine, you want money- BUT AT LEAST ALLOW US TO UPLOAD OUR CD'S TO OUR COMPUTERS OR IPODS. GET RID OF STUPID DRM. IT MAKES MUSIC USELESS! Artists are making heaps of money and they would make more if people had access to a wider range of music. No evidence supports that file sharing is hurting them. You, the RIAA, do nothing, absolutely nothing to deter file sharing, so even if it became legal there would be very little extra file sharing thats going on anyway. Through it you learn about new artists and then you SUPPORT them, not just through music but through other means. Artists aren't being hurt by it and the RIAA is only making people (like myself) angry at the music industry as a whole and I am starting to turn my back on it and I'm just stopping listening to music anymore. I'm very bitter that I can't upload my favourite CD to my ipod legally. That sucks. YOU CAN'T EVEN FIND THE CD ON THE INTERNET AND BUY IT OFF ITUNES OR SOMETHING LEGALLY FOR PETES SAKE. |
| 201. | Industry and artists still profitable - just less so than before.
Also music industry has lacked innovation and has taken head in sand attitude. It fails to deliver what consumers want. |
| 202. | Thousands of talented artists always struggled to make a living waiting for their "break" which would never come. Music industry was not interested in them. Their business model is creating a few hundred "idols" and milk them for money. Liberalization of music would level the playing field and give every artist a chance to make a decent living. |
| 203. | The music industry is still producing as much music as ever; more so even. |
| 204. | these impressions are not fallacies |
| 205. | They're all rich. |
| 206. | Artists are still making millions. Oh, so they are not making tens of millions...their still raking in the f*cking cash where they don't have to work for the rest of their lives. Besides I don't see how anyone can spend over 4 million on themselves, I know it has happened, but seriously how shit do you need. |
| 207. | No, they totally are still getting rich. And maybe it would be better for artists *not* to be so rich- people shouldn't make music for the money, they should make it because they want to and they *love* doing it. They music industry would probably produce much better music overall if artists had more average salaries. |
| 208. | I fail to see how these claims can be true, I don't see massive redundancies occuring due to piracy, and it's very rare that an artist speaks out against piracy damaging their income, if they did so in all likely hood they'd be labelled a hypocrite. I mean come on Mariah Carey say complaining that due to piracy she can't buy a new xxxx million dollar mansion, give me a break. |
| 209. | For the past 50 years artists and record companies have been getting rich off of mediocre product. They package their one or two decent songs with rather mediocre to poor songs. I have wasted a lot of money on mostly crappy albums just for one or two songs. Let the music industry reap what they have sown. We have found a way around the crap, and artists will have to step up their game, or wither and die. |
| 210. | The record companies are losing money, not artists as they get their money well in advance.. and who needs the big labels anyway.. more and more artists are doing download-only affordable services off their own backs and making MORE than what the record companies provide with contracts. |
| 211. | Riaa Lies |
| 212. | RIAA are a bunch of cunts! |
| 213. | "Though it would appear.....but they're not"
Theres an ill formed argument if there ever was one. |
| 214. | Tons of people are still buying music...wtf is wrong with you people |
| 215. | Fuck the RIAA |
| 216. | they make money from the free promotion. it increases concert and merch sales. artists make VERY little money from an album. |
| 217. | trying to make more money |
| 218. | They have their goals backwards -- copyright does not exist to make record companies or authors get rich. It exists to promote arts, which are doing just fine (especially up here in Canada where there's no DMCA). The record companies are still making money, but even if they weren't, there are tons of great independent acts out there. |
| 219. | The artists make money by signing contracts with the record companies and giving concerts. Music piracy is in a way marketting the artists. The RIAA just appeared because technology is making record companies obsolete.
They are unneeded nonsense, and for an artist, it just means easy, quick money, by the means of contracts.
We have a lot of examples of successful bands that use the internet (MySpace for example) to show their works, and work hard to earn their money (giving concerts). |
| 220. | OMG some rockstar can't afford a private jet this year! Oh, I feel so sorry for him. Please pass on my sympathy to his family |
| 221. | Getting more music stimulates more interest in music. Buying more CDs is one thing, another thing is going to more concerts, buying more books and other related stuff. But more fundamentally, if there are cheaper an better ways to distribute music, why should I care about a stone age music industry that wants to maintain its slow and costly way of promoting its own selection of artists and songs? I do care about artists making money. |
| 222. | Even despite the fact that record companies still take huge ammounts (up to 80%) of the profit from each record/mp3 sale, many artists are still reaching huge commercial success. |
| 223. | The vast majority of the record companies' revenues is going to people who have no hand in the artistic process, and very little to do with any success a record has. Mostly, this includes executives and multiply-redundant ad agencies. |
| 224. | The truth is nowhere near as simple as that. The times they are a changing. |
| 225. | They are simply trying to keep and even extend their shares on artist's pieces and on the other side they simply refuse to offer products that the public demands: DRM-free digital music. |
| 226. | If people make music to earn money, then people shouldn't buy their records at all. We still show up at their concerts, and I buy most, if not all of my albums myself. |
| 227. | I think the only difference is that now people are able to experience more types of music from more bands. People downloading music online are more likely to buy music because they have more access to new music. |
| 228. | The law in the 70's said I could make a copy of IP material(namely music) for my personal use. They are controlling what I can do with what I buy. Sounds like "Big Brother" to me.
How about the company 321 Studios? They shut down dvd x copy somebody lost a job!! |
| 229. | Artists get their money from touring, merch sales and cd sales in cash at concerts. The label gets most of the money from retail cd sales. |
| 230. | Record profits year after year, and CD prices keep going up. |
| 231. | I buy it if I like it |
| 232. | Touring is making the money |
| 233. | I see artists that wouldn't be represented by the record companies being able to sell their music through sites like All of MP3 as well as gain "share" of the market through file-sharing. |
| 234. | CD sales are up 8% this year |
| 235. | ...although this wouldn't be the case and the record companies were to embrace the new technology in a way that works with the way the public want their music, rather than by bullying them |
| 236. | labels are losing revenue from music sales but artists never got anything from them anyway. music sales make up only a small proportion of overall label income and they are increasing profits in other areas. |
| 237. | While I am sure that there are lost profits, artists are certainly still getting rich |
| 238. | There are still a few superstar artist who are making good money and keeping the labels afloat, but there are many mid level bands that suffer because of file sharing |
| 239. | The artists have always been screwed by the major labels, and P2P isn't going to change this except possibly help artists. |
| 240. | Record Companies are Sharks!
Hope music could be soon distributed without them, the sooner the better for both fans and artists...not the lawyers running the current show! |
| 241. | RIAA companies are spending too much on advertising, production, etc. Consumers would be happier buying slightly lower-quality, less-advertised music if they felt the profits were going to the artists rather than people in advertising or the labels. |
| 242. | The record companies and their artists are still making enormous profits and are as wealthy as ever. |
| 243. | MTV Cribs. Bling bling |
| 244. | Profit-driven record companies will do anything and say anything to keep their profits high. This includes concentrating on established acts rather than fostering new talent, ripping off artists, spending huge sums on marketing bland crap to the masses and spreading outright lies. |
| 245. | file sharing applications are just a way for people to preview music. If they really like the album, they will buy it. This forces the song writers and labels to produce higher quality music. |
| 246. | companies are, artists not so much |
| 247. | I see artists flaunting money, wearing tons of jewelery, spending ridiculous amounts of money on clothing, getting in trouble with the law because money has corrupted them, driving very expensive cars, and owning enough houses for an entire community to live in. |
| 248. | The record companies are still making their money, far too much, and the artists are still not getting paid. |
| 249. | I think that the RIAA by not adapting to the latest distribution outlets are engaged in a cutting off their nose to spite their face manuever that will plunge their companies into the sink. |
| 250. | Those slow to embrace new delivery models for intellectual property will continue to earn less. |
| 251. | They make record profits again and again. Maybe they should stop filling their pockets and put some fo that money back into music. |
| 252. | I started buying a LP's, had to buy the same CDs for full price as I cannot copy it fastand legal. Now I have to pay the third time to buy the same music in VMA format. You get three time the money you deserve! |
| 253. | the record companies are robbing the artists blind. the artists are suffering, an it is not the file shareing doing it, it is the companys they signed up to be serf's for. |
| 254. | music has been selling for years - why are they trying to control things now? |
| 255. | The end of the music biz is nigh. Good. |
| 256. | file sharing helps get the word out.
out of all the people i know that share files, they download songs or cds to determine whether or not they like the music. if they likie the music, they legally purchase them, either electronicly, or in a physical form. |
| 257. | The record companies are still making money but they are greedy and want to 'maximise' their profits. File sharing allows artists to be heard and not many people could afford to buy the amount of music they listen too. Remember taping? i am saying this as a proffesional musician. Digital music has allowed smaller music companies too succeed and smaller groups to gain popularity. |
| 258. | if artists and record company execs lived "standard" upper-middle-class lifestyles, i might be tempted to believe this rhetoric, but the fact remains that they live opulent lifestyles. this is nothing short of "do as i say, not as i do" |
| 259. | RIAA has their head in the sand! It's a new age for music and the consumer is sick of being ripped off for one hit over hyped bands. Cost to sell on-line should give the customers lower prices and no DRM tricks. |
| 260. | Most Peopel I know that downlaod Music Go Out and Buy teh CD i fthe Like it so that they can get a Higher Quality of Audio. |
| 261. | Most Artists never made much money due to unfair conditions in record contracts. The Record Companies make most of the money. The Record Companies are still making money today. The sales of music online is even more profitable for the Record Companies than selling CD's. |
| 262. | Major labels are doing worse, but independent artists and labels are growing in success. Artists who have decided to go that route, are having much less overhead, and they don't owe their labels exhorbitant amounts, but they're still finding success. |
| 263. | RIAA should allow the on line sale of non DRM songs, at a fair price. That's all.
I buy from regular juke box and after I make a CD, since I want to hear what I bought on any reader, and I own two ipods. If I buy something it's mine, not allowed to use until the pc crash and I must be free to give it away for free or to sell. The price of some old records is to high on line. Open the doors and the market will open! |
| 264. | good people pay for music |
| 265. | Like any industry over time, the music industry is changing. They make more money than ever via touring. People are still willing to spend their money on the musicians. Instead of buying 10,000,000 copies from one artist there is now the opportunity to be exposed to hundreds more artists, purchase their paraphenalia, and watch them tour. The money simply goes to a wider base of musicians (not all on major labels) and success is now based on the music more than the marketing. |
| 266. | I never got the impression that the companies involved in the RIAA gave 'their' artists much of a cut to start with, so perhaps certain artists are losing their money, but as far as I can see the record companies are still filthy rich. |
| 267. | They are still making plenty money, but it's their duty to maximise revenue and that's what this is all about. |
| 268. | Being an artist is not about getting rich but getting their art known, and being able to live thanks to our art too, and the first one leads to the second.
As for the record companies, they should be there to help artists, not to get richer than them.
Finally, it's anyway the most popular, most of the time most "manufactured", hence those "artists" concidering their art as mere products, that are complaining the most about 'file sharing'. |
| 269. | The RIAA hogs all the money for themselves, giving little back to the artists. |
| 270. | They work a few weeks a year and are millionnaires, only getting richer. I work darn hard for my money and I deserve every penny. |
| 271. | Just don't believe it. Record companies are "COMPANIES". No profit, no company. |
| 272. | Record companies have a proven record of not paying royalties and dreaming up ever increaseing ways to increase the lengh of ip laws to help them selves to more money. IP was formed for the person who made the item not for corporations to exploit years after that persons death. |
| 273. | The RIAA exists and has the resources to sue people. If it was hurting them, they'd be complaining from paper bags, not cushy offices. |
| 274. | They're making boatloads of money. |
| 275. | The RIAA member companies are still making obscene amounts of money, piracy or no, and the artists are making next to nothing in comparison. |
| 276. | When I stop seeing rappers I've never heard of on MTV Cribs with 18 cars and houses with rooms they don't even remember what is in, then I will feel sorry for them.
As long as untalented horrible artists are still coating everything they own in chrome and 24karat gold, I'll keep sharing. Besides, the record execs get too much of the money. It's not fair to the artists that some rich clown in an ivory tower gets 1/4 or more of the money they make. |
| 277. | The labels are taking all the money,NOT the artists. |
| 278. | The labels represented by the RIAA are misguided and blind to the changes in the market place. They haven't figured out how to capitalize on p2p so they think they have to crush it. King Midas comes to mind, how much is enough? |
| 279. | Music companies making millions, artists making small percentage!!! |
| 280. | everyone is still getting rich. |
| 281. | The RIAA is clinging to an old system that cannot survive and they know it. Eventually the old system will become something new, but the more kicking and screaming there is from the RIAA, the worse of a transition it will be, and the lesser role the RIAA will play in the future. They are causing their own downfall in their arrogance. |
| 282. | Nobody is suffering. |
| 283. | I don't know about record companies, but I can see it for the artists...they have to make their money from tours and merchandising. |
| 284. | I think some artists are hurt; some aren't or aren't hurt much and some might actually benefit. I don't see solid evidence that the fall in music sales is due to illegal file sharing. What about competition with other media, such as DVD, video games, web surfing, youtube, etc.? |
| 285. | Check out their bottom line profit figures and you'll still see the large money they make. If the modernise and lower prices they'd make more. |
| 286. | They are just crying "poor" |
| 287. | Why is it that most of the record companies still make lots of money, still take most of the artists hard earned money.. and so on..
I buy merchandise straight from the artists and go to their concerts.
I support the artist (if we talk dollars and cents) much more than people who buy the cd and essentially give the record company a 90+% cut.
The RIAA's big four already make enough money as it is.
|
| 288. | A bunch of fat cat salespersons out to rip off everyone they can, including their artists and employees. Their track record of corruption is legendary. Now the've bought politicians. |
| 289. | Record compamies make their money of record sales, artists make their money off of tours |
| 290. | The artists make a ton of money, the record companies just want more so they can widen the gap between the upper and lower classes. |
| 291. | too many parasites |
| 292. | The record companies are still making good profits, just a lot less profit than before. Also, from what I can see, artists are still quite well off. Especially the more popular ones. |
| 293. | Record companies just want more money and the artists have been getting screwed out of money for so long. P2P cuts out the middle man (record companies) and gives the artist more control. |
| 294. | RIAA sucks and as an artist we need to get with the digtal world. I might not make as much selling my to expensive cd but I can see good sells from itunes, allof mp3 etc |
| 295. | CDs are much too expensive. It's theft. |
| 296. | the riaa is nothing more than a lobbying group for corporate greed, the artists are making no more or less than they were before file sharing. |
| 297. | The Album is no longer the primary format and the record companies have squandered the goodwill of the public by trying to force a price point for digital music that many no longer accept. Sharing is return does benefit artists as it allows people to have access to and experience music they otherwise would never here (primarily due to the monopolization of media outlets by a few corporations). |
| 298. | They could all stay alive and be big in bussiness |
| 299. | nobody know how much exactly is bein lost on file shading and how many people downloading these filles will ever buy the record in case it will not be possible to download it. its all only a theory on how to present "their truth" (of the record companies, artist, organisations "protecting" artist's rights etc...) |
| 300. | People are still buying CDs, and piratism doesn't make them more poor. |
| 301. | i think music sharing via internet allows groups a venue to gain exposure and be discovered. |
| 302. | The companies and the artists still make money. The only reason that artists might make less money, is because any lost revenue is taken from the artist rather than the company. The RIAA and several of the companies it represents, has been sued, and lost for price fixing on CDs. The companies the RIAA represents has been sued for payola and lost. Perhaps loss in revenue may also be due to the amount the companies pay the lawyers. But either way, any "loss" is exaggerated and probably a lie. |
| 303. | The RIAA and record labels are just greedy and they want to have control over what you listen to. Money breeds greed. |
| 304. | none of the top CEOs in this industry have taken a pay cut. |
| 305. | I think these artists are more then well enough for themselves. The average income is something like $40,000 a year and I know most of them are getting more than that. If they aren't, take it up with the producers and everyone else that gets the money. Think about it, if a cd costs roughly $15 and they sell even 100,000 cds, that's 1.5 million dollars that is being made by someone. I could do a lot with 1.5 million... |
| 306. | It is not a matter of how I personally see the RIAA's business, but rather that the numbers indicate that they are doing fine, despite (or perhaps because of) being an illegal ogopily. |
| 307. | The RIAA cannot accept that the public are starting to realise the real value of music and are wanting to pay the fair price for unrestricted music - especially in this digital age where overheads are a fraction of providing hard-copies of music. The RIAA could be cashing in on this digital age if they catered for the audience, but instead they have left the audience to cater for themselves. |
| 308. | The economy is changing, and the RIAA is trying to hold onto an outdated and bloated business model. |
| 309. | They seem to be bursting with profit |
| 310. | too many no talents make way too much money for the tripe they purvey. |
| 311. | The music industry spend huge amounts of money in marketing etc, they are by no means poor! If they can pay Robbie Williams £80m ........ |
| 312. | if you download a song and like it. it encourages you to buy the CD |
| 313. | The live industry is booming, the majors are still spending colossal amounts trying to market average acts and bands that have avoided the major route (e.g. Enter Shikari) are selling CDs and tickets without them. |
| 314. | Complete Bullshit. If they weren't getting rich, where did they get the money to go after everyone & run all this propaganda bullshit. |
| 315. | Record companies make money by selling music (records, Cds, tapes, ect.).
Artists made their money by touring. |
| 316. | Spin |
| 317. | In my opinion, the RIAA is greatly exaggerating the effect of filesharing on artists. |
| 318. | RIAA is extorting money from both customers and artists for their own profit. |
| 319. | $$$$ |
| 320. | This claim makes me laugh. I think record companies are still making their money, but they're scared to death because their stellar income is decreasing. Instead of following the market, they want to maintain us in ignorance simply because doing so they can continue to lazily amass money.
Artists may be in real danger, but not because of us: it's because of the greedy nature of their own recording companies.
|
| 321. | Using a pre-internet business model which cannot work. |
| 322. | RIAA is making the money not the artist. RIAA should fold up and get with technolgy |
| 323. | These companies are fat and lazy and unwilling to move forward with the rest of the World into the online age. If they sell a CD, even an online version, it's 1 box or download they can notch up on a spreadsheet, 10 bucks in the bank to show the shareholders. Anything that requires an ounce of thought beyond that is equally beyond *them*. Grass roots free dispersal of new acts on Web 2.0 systems? 'Piracy'. Sharing a beloved track/album with close friends to spread the word about the band you love? 'Piracy'. Downloading a copy of a new album from a bit torrent site, listen to it and think it's Great and go out and buy it? 'Piracy'. It makes you sick it really does. |
| 324. | Anything the RIAA says is BS |
| 325. | My main problem with the whole situation is not the fact of intellectual property theft, which I feel is heinous. But, the stubbornness of the RIAA to adapt to the changing times. Virtual media should be embraced. The record company has never allowed the artist to make the deserved money for their intellectual property. 7-10 percent is abhorrent. |
| 326. | I know many people who still buy albums because they like having the box art, etc. and like to support the artists. I also know many people that buy music on iTunes because it's the "right thing to do". Most (but not all) people that download music will do so to listen to it for a short amount of time. If they couldn't download they would probably just wait and hope to hear it on the radio. There are still people who download large collections of music which they would have otherwise bought, but they are a minority. |
| 327. | The labels take tons of money away from the artist. |
| 328. | I don't think any artists are going hungry |
| 329. | I see that people are more apt to listen to a certain album/genre that they may not have if they had to pay 13-20 dollars for the album in a record store. I see people around me still buying records that they would have bought if file sharing was not around. |
| 330. | Things haven't changed much.... |
| 331. | the business model of riaa/mpaa is dead with the demise of the distribution chain. |
| 332. | it's a fantasy industy with record companies adding little value in the chain between artist and buyer. |
| 333. | Music indusry is no more a high margin industry. It has evolved from a lean and costly music offer with high concurrence barrier to a massive offer industry with low concurrence barrier. For decades, music industry profited from inflated cartels price ; now, music industry refuses to admit that the time for high margin is gone, refuses to lower its prices, refuses to break its cartel anticoncurrential illegal agreements, refuses to build a large cheap efficient modern non DRM offer including music from the past for which there is no more registering available, causing the whole industry a severe depression because of its incapacity to adapt to XXI century reality. |
| 334. | untrue |
| 335. | Record companies, artists, and every else involved are still making money. Artists are still selling record-breaking numbers of albums. |
| 336. | Artists do not make their money from recordings but from live appearances. The more famous the more they can charge. |
| 337. | If they by fact are getting rich, how can it be a fallacy? |
| 338. | No lifestyles are changing. Britney is still a millionaire, Execs are still buying boats, and even the less successful artists like Dan "Automator" Nakumara are still doing very well. |
| 339. | just offer your songs for a fair price, i wont pay money for copysecured shit i cant burn for playin in my car! |
| 340. | Anyone who thinks artists on major labels have to endure any real financial hardships is a moron. |
| 341. | The artists are so rich, it seems like all the can author is songs about money, expensive items and being rich. |
| 342. | I've seen musicians wearing several pounds of gold, surrounded by body guards, also gold encrusted, arrive at casinos in luxury liners. Thier distain for other people and the help were obvious. They think they're getting over on us. |
| 343. | The money is still there to be made just in different ways. |
| 344. | The music industry is just as successful from pay-to-download services like iTunes and even free sharing as it is from purchased CDs. |
| 345. | RIAA collects for itself and the corporations and gives nothing to the artists. |
| 346. | A monopoly is being threatened; this is an attempt to prevent further damage to the monopoly that the media associations currently enjoy. |
| 347. | Artists do make money, and probably are in the top 5% of any the countries richest. I do not see any fallacies in owning jets, castles, holiday villas and resort islands. |
| 348. | I see any suffering on the indusrty part as self induce due to overpriced cds and no talent artists. |
| 349. | Artists make their money when they are on tour. Artists do not get anywhere near their fair share of record sales too. Listening to freely available music inspires people to buy music anyway. |
| 350. | Everyone has to work harder and provide more value for the money. |
| 351. | If anyone's been robbing artists, it's the recording industry itself. |
| 352. | they are still getting rich. hundreds of sales won't affect the artists or the record companies but the stores that sell them as the stores buy the cds of artists from the record company. |
| 353. | record companies and artists are richer than ever. |
| 354. | Heard of the rust belt
Times are a changing RIAA does not get it |
| 355. | The real money never went to the artists.
The record industry is an industry of blood sucking parasites |
| 356. | They still keep getting money from live concerts, which have not suffered and are usually what gives them more money than the CD sales as per se.
And record companies still get the money even if the CD's aren't sold, as they sell them to the music stores. |
| 357. | Artists would sell more records if their
Product offerings were better..Also the reason they are not selling, is why buy a album when only 2 or 3 songs are worth listening to. Indepent artists on the other hand have more consistant quality
with their CD's therefore taking away
sales from boring homogenized mainstream artists..Lets the RIAA give money by incentives of quality,not by gambling like they have been on potential sales. It is not the consumers
fault.. |
| 358. | Any decline in their earnings is far more to do with the fact that they have competition from computer games, cell phones, DVDs and any number of other ways for me to spend my money. This competition was negligible 10 years ago but now it's a major factor. |
| 359. | Music is bigger than ever |
| 360. | they can afford the lawyers to sue people. they still have a lot more than the average person they are suing. it looks like artists are really struggling on MTV cribs, doesn't it? |
| 361. | Most bands are getting more screwed by Record Companies than anything else. What royalty rates do most bands get? |
| 362. | The rIAA is getting rich off of the lawsuits, and using them to gain more funds to sue more people. they won't even let artists themselves distribute music online, even if the artist themselves want to do so! The RIAA has way too much money, and they're a bunch of greedy crooks that need to be put out of business! |
| 363. | How can it be a fallacy if they are making money and getting rich? How many record company executives and artists have lost their houses and lives due to a lack of money? |
| 364. | The music industry is doing just fine and is doing just fine. It seems more like exceptional greed to me, going after college students? They don't have any money, but you can scare them and get a bit. Do that to several thousand and you make quite a tidy sum. |
| 365. | The artists are still getting rich. |
| 366. | They are still making more than enough money it's just less than before, mostly because people are tired of them peddling the same old crap more so than file sharing. |
| 367. | Screwed |
| 368. | Of course the record compainies are still making money! Look at all the CD sales, and the majority of people that download music use iTunes anyway! |
| 369. | RIAA is adhering to an outdated business model, and using fear, uncertainty and doubt to avoid dealing with reality. |
| 370. | Record companies do get a lot of money, i.e. through ringtones. However, artists are still getting a ridiculously low cut of the price of an album or track. Even when the middle-man (think CD manufactures) is dropped, like with iTunes, artists don't earn more than a few cents per track. |
| 371. | File Sharing can make people wanting to buy the original CD |
| 372. | The RIAA is a racketeering agency akin to any of the mobs in America. They're victimizing people based solely on greed. If it wasn't so why would they go after sites like allofmp3 who pay high percentages of royalties to artists? They fear change and so like any troglodyte they tried to simply kill competition. They are luddites who fail to understand that the old days of forcing music on people in the only structure they understand is over. If I were in political power I would bring the RIAA under congressional review and treat them like any other organized crime entity. |
| 373. | The RIAA is inherently dishonest, and have proven themselves to be liars so many times in the past - why should I EVER believe ANYTHING they have to say? |
| 374. | Artists ARE still getting rich. Record companies ARE still making money. Maybe less than before, but who cries when out-moded businesses go the way of the dinosaur? Who is clamoring for subsidies for the Pony Express? Should Western Union sue people for not sending telegrams? The record industry should get its act together and stop relying on outdated business practices, alienating their customers, and price-gouging. |
| 375. | If the record companies are not making as money as they used to, it's because they insist on clinging to an outdated business model. |
| 376. | Only a select few artist ever get much royalties anyway. Most artists, even ones with hits, get the shaft. File sharing has little affect on the artists. I understand that the record companies are losing a Cash Cow on CD sales. CDs are WAY overpriced, and I-Tunes, etc, is as expensive and more restrictive. The record companies have failed to prepare for the technological changes, and it is their own fault. They need to come up with a business model that fits current trends. If not, they deserve to go the way of the doe-doe. |
| 377. | Appear? If you get rich you get rich, how can one appear? |
| 378. | They are making money, lot of money .. |
| 379. | Fat Cats |
| 380. | Record companies need to change w/ the times, the current state of buying is not working anymore. Regardless, artists and companies are still making a fortune, file sharing has little effect on record sales. |
| 381. | artist are still making enough money and would make a lot of more if the record companies got their act together and give the customers what they want: DRM free music at low prices. At low prices people won't bother looking for illegal downloads but would purchase them legally. Just look at the success of AllOfMp3.com |
| 382. | Pop artists still make exceptional amounts of money and the RIAA execs don't seem to be suffering. |
| 383. | The RIAA are parasites on legitimately talented artists. They take too much money from the hands of those artists and spend the rest of the time flooding the market with overproduced clones of overproduced mediocrity.
|
| 384. | Any time an artist DOESN'T make any money, they need to re-evaluate their marketing decision and take another look at their recording contract. |
| 385. | Record companies are getting rich on the backs of a majority of their artists. The only "artists" getting rich are majors like Metallica, et al. |
| 386. | The RIAA refuses to evolve and would rather return to the days when they just sat back and raked in the dough instead of adapting to a shrinking global village. File sharing is not hurting the music industry... its the RIAA and it's stranglehold on the music industry. |
| 387. | Most artiists I'm aware of still get a pittance from record companies. Royalties tend to go to the composers. |
| 388. | I have read statistics that for every $1 USD that the is paid for a CD, the "industry" (i.e., NOT the artists) get $0.89. That is the definition of obscene profits, and is gouging consumers AND artists. The RIAA and their corporate pirates should take less profit. |
| 389. | The recording industry is making huge sums of money still and would make more if they embraced the new ways of listening to music instaed of fighting every new thing that changes the way people enjoy music. |
| 390. | Publicity, through music sharring always benefits the artists in the end -- many artists I am huge fans of (and purchase their CDs), I discovered through file-sharring. |
| 391. | Not everyone will pay for the songs, IE: Cassette & VCR tapes. They tried this with them too AND LOST. Now they are upset that they cannot control a technology that they let loose before securing it. Your problem. |
| 392. | The RIAA is loseing money they are trying to protect there jobs... the real rip off is the 10 songs on an album for $20.00 and only 2 are good songs |
| 393. | As long as they still exist it means they get enough money. Otherwise they would do something else. |
| 394. | the recording industry is making money, but it isn't generating the number of multi-million selling albums that it's grown used to. |
| 395. | The artists are getting ripped off by their record companies. The few high up in the pecking order in the record companies want more. |
| 396. | The big four simply aren't concerned about the smaller artists they claim are the real victims. |
| 397. | Record companies are still making their money and they are still screwing the artists as much as they can. Very few artists have ever gotten rich. |
| 398. | I think the record companies are afraid the artists won't need them anymore, and they are doing whatever is possible, even if illegal and unethical, to maintain control. |
| 399. | They just refused to join the technology race. |
| 400. | There is still always the core of people who buy music, go to concerts, and even decide to download before they buy. The labels and artists are still getting their fair share of money. |
| 401. | I believe they are overstating the supposed 'impact' file-swappers are having on the industry in the vain hope of gaining sympathy in Congress. The simple fact is, the money the record companies and artists make from tours alone will be more than I will ever see in my lifetime. |
| 402. | The music industry continues to push manufactured music that reproduces a number of basic forms, raising up and disposing of an endless series of one hit wonder artists. Buyers of the chart hits have become disenfranchised with artists who only produce one song worth listening to, and as a result they turn to file-sharing to get some kind of value for money. Meanwhile the internet has allowed smaller indie artists to proliferate, and to continue to break out at an almost unprecedented rate. The music industry is not dying, it's just becoming decentralised, with fringe artists and small sub-genres benefitting from the "long tail" effect. The big five publishers need to justify their failings in front of their share-holders and choose to do so by blaming their poor sales on the straw-man villain; piracy. The practical reality is that most people use file-sharing as a means of sampling music, and continue to buy what they like. |
| 403. | If record companies weren't making profits (or looking forward to making profits in the medium-run) they would stop operating. They clearly aren't even thinking about this.
Many major recording stars make wages that an economist might classify as 'supernormal'. This keeps prices artificially high. Add to this the fairly sizeable profit made by major recording companies, and the price of music is, in the minds of many consumers, artificially high so they look for a way of circumventing this. If music fans were able to pay musicians (and technical people) directly for their music, we would see lower prices, a more honest system and less piracy. |
| 404. | RIAA are greedy crybabys, with their own agenda. There have always been people who wouldn't buy an album even if it was free -- and there always will be. This current situation is nothing new. Lets go back to 1976 and home taping....
Instead of suing KIDS, maybe they should force artists to work harder to give people their money's worth for that $18 for a single CD. And maybe they should figure out that if AOL can afford to give away FREE a cd with artwork, CDs shouldn't cost $18 to a kid who doesn't even have a job yet. Finally, lay off the myriad of foreign country sites that also sell music. If they're illegal as the RIAA claims, how did they get the music to sell in the first place, and, how come Apple hasn't complained yet that they're sales are down? Enough! |
| 405. | Compare the price of DVD's with CD's, any new DVD will drop to about £5 in a very short time, not so with music. Yet music does not require the same level of production costs as movies, so why the high continued high prices? Is it not Greed and salary comfort of industry leaders and the artists themselves, most of which display no real talent genuine originality, especialy amoungst the chart topping morons of recent times. The real victims are the customers, and have been for a long while now, and will probably continue to be if good reliable web sites like allofmp3 are bullied and crippled using underhand methods. |
| 406. | I have bought MORE CDs from shops than I EVER used to buy soince I started sharing and downloading .
You simply find MORE groups to love !! |
| 407. | I see that file sharing has no impact on a reduction of sales, the record labels have been very slow to listen to what the customer wants and insist on putting DRM on music that has been leigtimatley bought, if you had the choice between paying for something restricted or getting it free in better quality and not restricted, what would you choose? |
| 408. | money in money out |
| 409. | record companies and artists would make more through increased exposure of worthwhile titles whereas dross would get more efficiently weeded out |
| 410. | most musicians make their money from other things such as live performances and selling merchandise. It's record companies who make money from actual record sales, unless the band is absolutely massive. The record companies need to evolve to suit what their customers wants. |
| 411. | The recording industry is getting richer, same as always. They're using online file sharing as another means to garner more cash and make sure everyone feels bad for the poor, hard done by millionaire RIAA moguls and musicians. |
| 412. | IF THEY EARN 5 ZILLIONS INSTEAD OF 10 ZILLIONS THEY SAY THEY ARE LOSING 5 ZILLIONS. I WOULD SAY THEY ARE STILL EARNING 5 ZILLIONS. OR THAT THEY DID NOT EARN AS MUCH AS THEY EXPECTED. BUT YET, THEY ARE EARNING AN AWFUL AND DISGUSTING LOT. |
| 413. | Bears are Catholic. and the Pope dislikes indoor plumbing |
| 414. | Too many inbetweeners making profit of artists work. |
| 415. | Artists are still earn millions. There is more than enough money to go around, giving everyone in the industry a fair wage. |
| 416. | tHOSE ARE TOTAL LIES!!! |
| 417. | They can make a fair profit - their prices are too high. |
| 418. | The record companies are greedy bastards who produce drivel. Prices are dictated only because of monopolistic collusion between said companies. Artists are getting rich, but are still overpaid for their value to society. |
| 419. | Music sales are up. Loss from P2P is perceived and simply cannot be quantified. |
| 420. | Record companies never helped anyone why should anyone give them money? |
| 421. | they profit from over-marketing and selling largely crap music wrapped around one half-decent song per album. they hold back the arts, not advance them. |
| 422. | The music industry are screwing everyone over especially potential talented artists who are ignored in the face of maufactured groups, simply because for these, profits and controllability are maximal. |
| 423. | The RIAA has enough backing to pick and chose it's own fights, and unfortunately for it's own sake hasn't taken to read into the future of music distributiona and those artists' that rely on the RIAA may be paying the price for it. |
| 424. | I think the music industry is changing. So artists aren't going to get as much money. They're still getting a whole lot more than the rest of us. |
| 425. | Utter Bulls**t |
| 426. | Record companies are still making money and (some) artists are still getting rich. |
| 427. | Artists don't make the money...RECORD companies do. For every Madonna or Rolling Stones, there are a million smaller acts that have to tour incessantly to make ends meet. |
| 428. | Music companies artificially raise the price of CDs in order to increase their profits. They then drop the price back to a reasonable level if there is a public backlash, but quickly re-raise it once the story is forgotten.
The companies will lease or lend an artist the trappings of an extravagant lifestyle while their albums are selling, but use shady accounting practices to avoid actually paying royalties to the artists. |
| 429. | 1.) Record companies are still making money, including from sales of artist-related merchandise and concert venue income. You can't download a T-shirt.
2.) The wiser artists, recognizing that it's useless to rant against a tsunami, have caught the wave instead and are cutting out middleman by offering their music directly to the consumers (i.e. "direct-to-download" distribution). It's the wave of the future, you're either riding it or are drowned by it. |
| 430. | The record companies & artists will always get richer, that is a fact |
| 431. | The record companies are still making money and artists are still getting rich because the music is being sampled by more people than ever before. The people that like the music will INDEED BUY IT. |
| 432. | The music industry and the artist that provide songs for us are making a "Boat" load of money off of its fans. I feel once I buy that song, I can share it with any one I want. It not as if the artist or the music monkey's "RIAA" is going to come to my house and take back the song I bought. I entered into no agreement with them that I sould not share said song. With that said, If I buy a song or two and I want to share it with friends I am going to do just that. Will I lose sleep over the fact that the artist is not going to get his money from my friends, I think not. |
| 433. | Record companies inability and refusal to come to terms with the changing attitudes towards them and the versatility of the digital format and restrictions of DRM to end users are the real causes. |
| 434. | The record companies and the artists will always be making their money regardless of how much filesharing goes on. |
| 435. | I think the RIAA are nothing but a bunch of extortionists. Charge what the music is worth and I'll start buying from them. Until then, never will I buy another CD. |
| 436. | They just aren't making as much money as they think they should, but they are still making more than they deserve. |
| 437. | Artists aren't getting the money anyway, RIAA is. Thats why artists have to tour so much. |
| 438. | In my view, it's the record companies that lose, NOT the artist. The artists only get a sliver of the profits from record sales...that is why you see groups touring until they're senior citizens... =) |
| 439. | the riaa uses the media to spin the facts to their advantage. their traditional business model ( 1 super album to support all the less sucessful ones) no longer works we are buying only the individual songs that we like. The record companies are making money as well as the artists but it is no longer able to support their prehistoric overhead. |
| 440. | The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. |
| 441. | Though it would appear that record companies are still making their money and that artists are still getting rich, these impressions are...actually true. |
| 442. | The RIAA only exists for money, and money alone. |
| 443. | They are still making money just not as much. It has brought a normalization to an industry that otherwise inflated prices and thought only of itself. |
| 444. | The artists do not make a fair share compared to the rest of the music industry. With online distribution sites like iTunes, Apple makes more money than it should due to the DRM process. The whole way the music industry is set up is backwards. If labels want to continue making money, do not set up an economic model where it costs $1 a song, this is unreasonable. Have fair prices and have 90% go to the label and artist and the rest to the distribution agent. |
| 445. | They're making millions, if they weren't they wouldn't continue making CDs. Have you ever seen MTV Cribs? Every musical artist on the show is living in mansions with bathrooms bigger than my house! Not only do they have huge homes, they're driving around in cars that cost more than my yearly income. |
| 446. | These impressions are accurate. |
| 447. | Artists are still getting rich, and the music industry is still making money.
Filesharing has broadened consumers buying habits and made them more unpredictable (and pursuadable), which is something the RIAA doesn't want.
Most good artists would still do what they do if they made nothing at all anyways, becuase they like to create music. |
| 448. | All about money. They are making money. They just want more. |
| 449. | The world market for artists now numbers multiple millions, therefore music sales produce much higher returns than ever before in history.
Record companies can earn the same amount as they did before, even if they reduce prices significantly. |
| 450. | The record industry has failed to adapt to the environment and instead tries to force everyone to keep doing it the way it has always been done. If they started offering Albums online in the way that allofmp3 does for REASONABLE PRICES and without DRM then I would probably use these services. I don't think I spend less money on music than if I bought CDs... I just try more! |
| 451. | the greedy record companies hire the over-zealous RIAA people to make as much money as possible. |
| 452. | Record labels are earning about the same amount of money they always have, while artists are still getting screwed. Labels earn massively higher amounts of money than artists for any type of sale. Note: this only applies to the Big Four labels and their subs. |
| 453. | people wouldn't be in the industry if they weren't making money |
| 454. | This industry has consistently feared and opposed every new technology while always reaping greater profits once forced into adoption. They have no credibility and, apparently, are incapable of ever learning from their mistakes and procrastinations. |
| 455. | The record company's are the only ones that ever made money off albums. |
| 456. | the RIAA is a mafia cartel making all the money while the musicians are screwed. |
| 457. | Record companies are making recoed profits and artists are earning more than I can. |
| 458. | DRM's suck!!! |
| 459. | they all get paid too much anyway |
| 460. | The record companies are still making good money from back catalogue sales, but the recent artists who they are largely promoting are rubbish and not what the larger proportion of the buying public want to buy. Hence there are many artists/bands doing their thing via independents and/or the web who are doing very nicely. e.g. Marillion. |
| 461. | It's stupid to think the record company owners aren't sleeping on a pile of money every night. |
| 462. | The recording industry has been gouging its artists for years. Few artists trying to "break-in" to the business see any financial gain from the sale of their music. The RIAA members screw the artists out of any royalties claiming they have to charge the production and promotion costs back to the artists against any royalties. The industry has everything structured so that there's no risk to the companies, only the artists. Fuck the "industry." |
| 463. | The business model is failing, not the artists or record companies. The artists will always be paid in one way or another...it's the level to which the RIAA and recording companies are needed that might change. |
| 464. | If the weren't making money and getting richer, they would either be in bankruptcy or stop producing the crap the call music. |
| 465. | I think that consumers are now more empowered to choose how to purchase desired media. Companies are supposed to serve people that is how capitalism works. If a company does not serve properly it will do poorly. Actually the money is merely being distributed more to the people that deserve it, and the companies that serve the best products. |
| 466. | If I and 10,000 other people were to download music illegally, oh no, the Artist won't be able to afford their umpteenth Ferrari until next year. How devastating.... |
| 467. | the fact that bands can still make bajillions of dollars proves the music industry has nothiing to bitch about. if "american idols" can be come millionares from selling their crap then big business music still has a market. What they need to do is go back to economy 101 and study a supply demand graph and analize elasticicy of demand and surplus and shortages |
| 468. | The rich are getting richer. |
| 469. | they're signing bad artists and wasting money |
| 470. | As I understand it, artists make most of their money through ticket sales. The internet and file-sharing in particular provides far greater exposure for most artists than they would otherwise receive. Record companies are still making money through physical media sales, but they should shift their focus to promoting artists online and distributing music electronically. They should also allow for the distribution of music through file-sharing. This would be of the greatest benefit to all involved, including the fans. |
| 471. | they're still getting rich! |
| 472. | labels gets most of the money |
| 473. | There is more music than ever now. How do you explain this of things are financially so bad for the industry. |
| 474. | Nil |
| 475. | The fat cat's are getting fatter |
| 476. | Music artists needs to adapt to the new world, NPR had a piece on a musician that recorded his own instrument at home, and bought the other instruments on the internet (in the piece, the drums) for approximately $120 per song and instrument. It is then released through stores like e-music. This basically cutting out the middle man. The artist sells fewer songs/albums, but makes more money per song, and does not have to float a ridiculous studio bill from the record company, making it hard for a small artist to survive. This way more artists can live off their music, and we get more music to listen to. Its a win-win for everyone except the record inustry. Tough luck for them, but same thing happened to the button makers, and horse carriage makers and so on. It is called evolution... |
69.1% (746)