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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Donnie" <largro13@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: too much and or not enough |
| Date | Mon, 14 May 2007 12:43:28 -0000 |
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Hi,
I really think that being able to illegally copy and swap music has
and is going to continue to have a negative effect on the music
industry.
I work for a national, chain home improvement store, and we've
employed lots of teenagers to do stocking and janitor work, over the
last several years. And I especially know that the teens that have
worked for us in the last five to seven years have been bigtime file
sharers. I've tried to explain to some of them that file sharing
takes money from the artists that they are listening to, but I don't
think it soaks in for a for a small number of reasons:
1.) These file sharers, who fall between 16 to 22-years old, are at
a place in life where they really don't earn a lot of money, so they
are trying to stretch what little money they do earn to the max.
2 a.) I think the fact that they don't personally know the artists;
and also that most mainstream artists are percieved as rich, whether
or not that is the reality, helps them decide it is okay to share
files - kind of a Robin Hood complex - stealing from rich guys who
aren't going to be hurt anyway.
2 b.) They don't see the financial consequences on other people. If
you have a Kroger Grocery Store in your neighborhood, and people
shoplift from it like mad, when it goes out of business, you'll see
the result, and realize that if you want a neighborhood grocery
store, rather than driving across town for your groceries, you better
not shoplift next time another grocery opens in your neighborhood.
These kids can't see Joe Musician giving up on the music industry,
because of lack of financial success, and going to work at Best Buy
or Office Max; therefore, that doesn't exist; they are stealing a
couple of bucks, if they even realize they are stealing, from a
musician who, in their minds, has millions.
3.) It's also like the old adage of "Why buy a cow when you can get
free milk?" that's often applied to guys who won't marry the girl
that's already having sex with them. You know, why buy what you can
download for free? I think this one also falls back to them not
earning a lot of money. If they can get their tunes for free, a
teenager would just as soon repaint his old fixxer-up car, or get
clothes by Tommy Hilfigger or whoever the current hot clothing
designer is among the young crowd.
The disturbing thing to me too, is that I see this same phenomenon
rapidly overtaking the movie industry too. These same kids are file-
sharing the current movies, rather than buying them, or renting them
at Movie Gallery or Blockbuster. I work with kids who probably see a
dozen to twenty new release DVDs a month, without buying or renting a
thing. Their only expense is a blank DVD, and they likely only buy a
quarter of those, they see the rest of the movies through trading
with friends.
At some point in the future, unless copying can be stopped with
somekind of technological change, I think that we're going to have a
world with a lot less - professional grade, anyway, recorded music
and movies available. I think musicians and movie makers will be a
lot more like your local neighborhood leathercrafts guy. When the
money's not there, not as many people will be in the fields anymore.
It will be a parttime hobby to many rather than a fulltime job. How
that effects things will remain to be seen, I suppose.
Peace,
W.D.
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