Music In Trouble: Introduction

There's a problem in the world with the economy.

All of us are fairly aware of this.

But there has been so much stilted work in this industry it has how left them crippled.

I'm very keen to look at both sides.

Is the failing industry due to new consumer control or their own greed ageing back to the beginning.

Look at the link I first posted. Altyan Childs is now in 400K debt after winning a competition only 5 months ago...

He does not get much for his work, and then is left in the cold. A great start to this debate.

Here's the article

Today Tonight: A Interview With Altyan

You owe me............ 1.92 Million Dollars

Jammie Thomas has been fighting in court against charges laid against her for up to 1.92 million dollars.

The recording industry has decided this is a just amount for simply downloading and uploading songs.

Weather you know it or not, but every time you download a song. Or are downloading, LimeWire, as an example, would take bits from your files to make the song up for other downloaders.

That is how it works, that is also why downloading is much faster when there are more hosts.

With these hefty fines, it does not take much to make people think twice about downloading.

This woman in the end she did not have to take the brunt of the fines, and they have been drastically reduced.

But my question is, why on earth were the fines so huge??

In New Zealand we don't make anywhere near as much in compensation for murder or death.

But for taking a few songs she has been charged with huge amounts.

By seeing things like this it tells me just how much the industry's thinker just hasn't changed at all. Something needs to be done though. This governments idea for a  $15,000 fine seems much more practical, if seemingly impossible. It is already having lasting effects.

Jammie Thomas hit with $1.5 million verdict: Cnet

"Are You Downloading Prick?"

We live in a modern generation now where consumers have finally taken the power back.

Unlike the monopoly of days before the big cats have lost all footing in the business. Claiming to make no money from C.D. sales or even live gig events in smaller countries.

So, after seeing all the troubled artist's like Altyon that I posted before are WE the problem?

How much do you download?

Thinking in context of your iTunes.

How much of that have you actually bought?

As the ice has begun to crack underneath an industries foundation, we as the consumer feel safe in the chair but may not see an eventuality.

If that goes the network we have for music dies too.

The Beiber........

OK

So we have these huge big international corporations providing us with the groundbreaking definitions of music in our generation.

And they give us this.........

Surely he isn't there for his music alone.

I mean "Beiber Fever", and with so much merchandise. Wouldn't he be walking revenue?

He sells Pimple Cream

Movies

C.D.'s

Magazines

T Shirts

Napkins

Table Covers

Pants

Trading Cards

The list will go on....

They've obviously stopped earring money with music, or are clutching at straws to stay afloat.

Also something interesting is there's nothing about how much he gets paid on the Internet.

Like the record company Island Records really wants it in the dark. I am sure he gets enough to be more than happy. But it is a standard to have artist's paid a 5% commission.

Though I'm not sure Beiber is thinking of all these things when he's very originally selling us Pimple problem solutions.

(And for a laugh) Here's Beibes merchandise store.

Bieber Store

Proof

In my argument I believe that downloading is not just the sole cause of the Music Industries slow downfall. As I have mentioned before there has been a shift from new music in the last few years. Instead of a C.D. dominated sale profit, things like downloading have taken millions of dollars away from that.

Record companies are demanding higher percentages in payment to make up for these losses forcing a squeeze on a already tight situation.

Because of this the Artist's are taking their own action. Turning to new companies, manufacturing more merchandise, and doing more tours. Just leaving the companies behind. Also legitimate downloading has caught them by surprise. Leaving them in the dust.

A greed and unwillingness to change seem to undermine the whole thing. Some believe that individual artist profit is up but that ideal is very debatable. To the artist, not that much has changed. Though to get anywhere is so much harder than before. Besides that downloading is still crippling what is left. A recent figure suggests that 20 billion files have been downloaded per year.

I suspect that because of troubling trends, our free ride on downloading won't last forever and a new revolution for music is just around the corner.

TIME Magazine: Lost In The Shuffle

Hypebot Income Estimates: Rise Of Artist Income Debate 2009

Instructions To Download

Step 1: Buy A Computer

It does not matter just how old the machine is.

It is as able to download relatively quickly, at least as fast a connection will allow. To me it seems that anyone with the interest could download so easily, with little knowledge of computers beforehand.

Like a domino effect if you get rid of one torrent site another pops in its place.

LimeWire was one of the first but has now been shut down.

In its place more have popped up, Search For Music - & Download It!, FrostWire, and more I'm sure.

My point is you don't have to be e genius to do this, it is that simple. Making it one of the biggest cracks to the frame.

New You See $, Now You Don't

Look at these two articles.

Both written in the last couple of months of this year.

One claims that their making millions.

Whilst the other claims their cutting cost's by selling their building.

Earning The Money Through YouTube

EMI Selling Up

If their earning so much where has the money gone?

Maybe the giants are fickle.. In the EMI Selling Up articles they talk of "glory days" and all the experiences they have.

EMI is an international company, which has ruled the roost in the past.

There's only a three-month window between these articles.

What happened?


P.S. Conclusion and References on next page.