Two fingers up to the industry!

And I never felt comfortable using a listening station. It’s hard for me to really engage with a red vested, pimple faced teenager restocking Beyonce CDs next to me. The fluorescent lights always put a big dent in the vibe, too. Who has the time for that, anyways? When I go to a store, I wanna grab what I need & get out. The whole thing just never seamt to be very practical for discovery.

Lefsetz: You take a test drive before you buy a car, don’t you? You go to the Apple Store and fiddle with a Mac before you order one. What makes you think the same rules don’t apply to music? Music, when done right, isn’t disposable. The only stuff you don’t try out before buying is shit that’s cheap, that you instantly use up. You don’t care that much if you get ripped off. You’ll just never buy that product again.

Lefsetz: But music is different. Music, when done right, hits you EMOTIONALLY! It’s not inert, it’s made by people. It’s more than the sound. There’s a culture, that you may choose to bond with. Yes, it’s a choice, as opposed to what the major labels presently think. You don’t hammer your audience over the head, you INVITE them to partake.

Lefsetz: Does a drug dealer make you pay upfront? No, a new customer always gets a taste free. To see how fucking good the drug is. The goal is to ADDICT the customer, so he’ll keep on paying until he dies. This is the way it used to be in the music business, in the sixties and seventies, when bands had CAREERS!

KOAR: Before music was free….you could preview albums before buying them. Has this dude heard of listening stations? Back in the day the warehouse would allow you to open any CD and check it out - same thing with Second Spin and Moby Disc (here in the valley) which went out of biz a few yrs ago (both locations are resturantes now). Do you remember when retail stores started selling used CD’s….dudes thought that was going to kill the industry. Used CD’s that were either promo copies (even thought that was illegal to sell) or CD’s that were sold back….but we all know that any good CD in the rack was a promo copy because who was selling back the new Dr. Dre “the chronic” ….nobody but some young industry fools who were stealing the CD’s out the labels back door and selling them for $70 for a box lot to a middle man would go to the local indie store and then turn them around for $100.00 or so make the difference per box. And if you wanted to get risky - you would go straight to the retail store yourself and sell them and make $7 bucks per CD. No artist royalties, no mechanicals, no publishing, no soundscan….straight black market right there in the middle of a natioanl chain. Oh the good old days!!!

KOAR: Also to compare drugs to music is retarded….first off it is about bands/artist not just music. How many drugs are out there that a dealer is a makes a million a year….crack, cocaine, weed, herion, extacy….maybe a two handfulls? Now how many bands releasing music….thousands and thousands to the point you can’t keep up when records are $10.00 - cuz of the supply and demand - the tables have turned…..to much supply not enough demand and a commondity that is free if you know someone who knows their way around a computer and has the time to jack it.

STEVE ROSS

The downloads would’ve happened regardless. They took the reigns & made a boatload of cash off of those who were willing to pay. That’s how you make a profit by selling music these days.

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2007/11/radiohead-fans-cheapskates.html

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/10/estimates-radio.html