In a message dated 9/5/03 1:01:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
audities-owner@smoe.org writes:
We were talking about the downloading issue last night, and the only real
analogy I can make is shoplifting. Sorry kids...
Well, you can say that, if you want, but the fact is that without internet 
record stores (NotLame in particular) and mp3s I probably never would've heard 
of Bobby Sutliff or The Windbreakers. I've never seen a Bobby Sutliff record on 
the shelves, ever, and likely never will.

I don't say this to put you down, but to attack the notion on behalf of some 
artists that this is merely "stealing". To say so is to ignore the incredible 
promotional powers of the internet--and even ILLEGAL downloading (in fact, 
particularly illegal downloading) can be an incredible boon for lesser-known 
artists when it comes to at least getting their name/music out there. How often do 
you get radio airplay? Not often, I assume, but people probably do download 
some of your mp3s. And I personally don't buy the argument that mp3 trading 
will kill off CD sales since ALBUMS are a major pain in the ass to download in 
full. If you want a song or two to sample, or just like the single from an 
album, then yeah--that's pretty easy. An entire disc is an entirely different 
story, and at $12 I'd rather just buy it if I actually enjoy the few songs I've 
heard. I have a chance TO hear a few songs if I can download them.

I don't mean to look at this through rose-colored glasses. After all I work 
on the retail side of the music industry for an independent retailer that is 
already seriously considering its exit from the music retail business completely 
in favor of selling fun junk. The industry is facing a crisis, and 
downloading IS a huge part of it. But its impact could easily be lessened by 
implementing a few measures--re-introducing the single, promoting more artists so as to 
appeal to a broader range of tastes and ages, and reducing the (artificially 
inflated) price of CDs. For those who DON'T think that's a factor, consider 
this--my (fairly sizable) chain has been increasing the prices on many of our 
catalog titles for about 3 years because THE RECORD COMPANIES CHARGE US MORE, AND 
THEY TELL US TO RAISE THE PRICES. We fight them whenever possible (they often 
do this, in part, because of some quasi-legal deals enabling Best Buy and 
other behemoths to offer the lowest advertised price in our region, which is 
complete bullshit and we often sale-price their catalogs simply to spite them). Our 
average mark-up on CDs is a mere 14%, which is nothing when you consider that 
we have rent, employees, and other overhead costs to consider.

But I don't blame downloading, at least not completely. I think that the most 
telling piece of info I've seen recently--and I've seen it used in several 
respectable publications--is a graph detailing CD sales over the past 10-12 
years. CD sales PEAKED in 2000 (which was WELL into the Napster boom, in fact 2000 
was most certainly the peak of Napster as well) and then dropped back down to 
1998 levels, where they are at present. But it's worth noting that in 1998, 
CD sales were higher than they'd ever been, so the number of units currently 
being sold is actually still a very respectable amount. It's also worth 
considering that after 2000 the nation entered into a major recession that curbed 
spending on luxury items (like music), and we still haven't emerged from this.

For the time being, I choose not to believe the sky is falling, even if it 
does wind up changing a bit... --Jason