I think the only times I've ever actually burned an entire album, was when I overplayed the one I bought and its so filled with scratches that it won't even play half a song. Otherwise when I burn, it's a mix of artists.

Sorry if my English is not that great.

I live in Spain, and here piracy is a big problem. We have this ***** S.G.A.E., which is some kind of association that protects artists. They get money for every CD (original or CDR*) that's sold, every concert, every hotel, bar, etc. that has a TV, every place that plays music... And then they give that money to artists, in proportion to their earnings (this is, they give more money to the richer people like Alejandro Sanz or Enrique Iglesias, so small beginner artists have it even more difficult).

I think it's our time to return the ball to the music industry, they have been playing this dangerous game of risking the future of music.

Facts:

- One of the biggest music companies, Sony, made my CD burner. So, they're not losing SO much money after all.

- I must have the link somewhere, but I can't find it. I read in a news webpage that the music industry had grown a lot since Napster came up. It's true that they are loosing money for each ilegal CD, but was it money they were gonna earn anyway? I don't think so. P2P is FREE advertising for them.
I've bought a lot more music these last 3 or 4 years than in my whole life. Music that I found out through the Internet.

- I turn on the TV, and I see a bunch of musicians (or that's what they like to be called) singing in playback. Great. What if my math teacher gave class with a cassette? Would he get paid? Would he be called 'teacher'? If they don't like singing, maybe they should go and work in Walmart. Or keep on selling CD's, but stop anoying us with this legal crap, aren't you the first illegal?

- In Spain (I don't know if it is the same in other countries) he have these commercial compilation albums, like Ibiza mix. 5 or 6 years ago, these mixes where full of fake versions of the real songs. People started noticing, and now they have to sell them with a sticker saying "Only original versions". Who started piracy?

- Stores get 50% of the money, and music labels get about 40%. That's less than 10% to pay the physical CD and the artist. I believe Madonna has (or had) the highest royalties, that's about 1 or 2 dollars per CD. Yes, that's less than 10%. Am I really supporting the artist? Am I really stealing that much copying a CD?

- It is prooved that cheaper albums sell more.
If I go to the store and find out that what I was thinking to buy costs 25 - 30 euros, or dollars, (trust me, I'm not exagerating) I'll have to think about it. But if it's 10 or 15, I'll just grab it, and maybe I'll grab another album.

My oppinion: When I like an artist, I go and buy the album, not even trying to download it or burn it, unless it is way too expensive. When I don't know an artist, I download it first, and only if I really like it, I go to the store and buy it.
I wouldn't have to do this if they let me return it. It's like buying a painting without seeing it. It's like they are so afraid you're not gonna like it, that they won't give you the money back.
If we have Blockbuster, why don't we have something similar with music? Ah, that's right, because the music industry already did the business selling us all these cassette and CD copiers, and now they don't want to let us use them.




* Yes, SGAE started last year to charge an amount of money for all the writable media such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R... Why? To support artists, since these CD's might be used to copy music or movies. Imagine companies that need those CD's to make backups of their information, and they have to pay an artist to do that.
I don't know how, the spanish government approved this. Here's the logo for the anti-SGAE campaign. You can imagine what it says:

i burn cd's because its convenient and cheap. I cant afford to go and buy every cd that i like from every artist that i like. I just spent over $200 on cds this week so i think im gonna lay off on my trips to the record store and stick with burning until i get some cash.

Talking about industry's tricks, I find this article really interesting:

http://www.negativland.com/minidis.html

I hope you feel less guilty when burning a CD.

Don't believe it? Here's another fact:

What's the top technology in writable media. DVD? No way. That only holds up to 17 GBytes. What about a format of the same size (12 cm) that holds up to 140 GBytes, or even 10 Tbytes with improved techniques? You won't need to change your CD watching The Lord of the Rings, and it would have more extras and better quality. It can be scratched and still be read, and it's transparent!. Sounds incredible? Yes, industry likes it like that. Check this out: http://www.design-ireland.net/fmd/fmd1.php

Industry wants us to buy DVDs, and when the sales stop going up, then they'll come out with FMD.



By the way, this technology has been around since 2000. Let's see how much they take to start promoting it.

Instead of bitchin so much, the industry should make us have a REASON to buy their cd's, something like backstage footage or the process of making the album in the new cd's. I myself am the type of guy who listens to music on the web, and if its worthy enough, i'll buy the cd!

damn that first article makes me want to unleash my inner punk

......FUCK CORPORATE AMERICA!!!!!






Im glad i got that out before i turned into Good Charlotte.



but really that is a crock, im gonna stick with burning or buying used off ebay.

After I read both articles I just want to point out a few things, and don't get to angry we need two sides to a discussion.

For one the whole Negativland article was writen by the site itself with no references under the reason that the only people whom know about this are under the thumb of the big record companies who pay them aswell. If the site made some refutable references, well I'd be happy with that. Aside from that the entire atricle seems to be writen in a standard conspiracy format, whereas it asks a question and then answers in a way that seems to make sense at first glance.

The second article actually interested me quite a bit. But through reading it I started to notice that it was still in developement. They still had problems in the main parts, most evidentally the actually interface. Aswell as how the laser would penetrate so many layers so accuarately. But in reading it you would also notice that, since they were the only company that was exploring this product, it was risky aswell. Looking at the final notice posted by the author two years ago, you'd see that the company researching this product has completely shut down and this incredible invention is trashed. Hopefully for the time being but two years later, no others have taken on the product from there.

i burn a cd to see if i like it, then if it is any good i will go and buy it. no point buying a cd and finding out it is shit when you can find out that it is shit for free.

Well, I think that's the problem. Media tycoons, who inform us of what happens around, are not going to tell all their dirty bussiness. It's like if the mafia went to the police and told everything, which would be quite stupid.


Ahhhh!! I didn't read that. Too bad That explains why I couldn't find Constellation 3D's webpage. But, the thing is, why did this company went out of business? Because was going to be the best invention in the last 10 years in storage information technology, didn't attract the big guys, who are very happy with their DVDs.

Sorry for my bad English again.

Personally I think that no matter how dirty the buisness is its bound to get out. Negativeland may have made assumptions or may have exagerated some things. I'd really like if you could find at least one reference. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find some more articles on this basis.


Actually you have excelent English

I do think that if this was an invention that had such possibilites as was described in the article, it would have been picked up by a company by now. The profitability of it would surely catch the eye of at least major company, let alone none of them.