DRM and Greed
Bruce Munro has been listening – and my videos on DRM and the future of the RIAA really set him off:
Before the RIAA can get back the business, they might want to look at what got them here. In the 60’s and 70’s, a 50 cent 45 RPM record was a promotional item, meant to entice the public to buy the LP. It was relatively successful but even if the LP was a dog, they made a small profit on the millions of 45’s sold.
Within a few years that same 45 was $2.49 and the record companies had already started to market new artists with little quality material, poor preparation and lots of filler to pad out $10 LP’s. People started to get smarter and just bought the 45’s but at least they were still buying. CD technologies were introduced and the price of an LP (CD) shot up to $25 with assurances from the music industry that prices would fall back to LP levels as soon as the majority of the public adopted the new technologies.
They lied. They kept prices high, drove vinyl off the shelves and created a brand new problem. They manufactured a perfect digital copy of the program and were helpless to prevent the duplication and eventual distribution through the internet. Smarter teens can simply fire up the family digital TV, go to the “radio” stations they all contain, hook up their media recorder and go away for a few days. Digital music, no DRM and easy to edit MP3 format for the computer. Reminds me of the reel to reel recorders and FM radio stations when I was a lad.
Lets see now, they stopped fair cost promotional distribution (45’s). Tripled the cost of the LP and rushed product to market with poor content. Did little in the way of promotion deciding instead to spend that money on litigation suing teenagers hundreds of thousands of dollars (by the way, teenagers don’t have any money) and generally making a pain in the ass of themselves to legislators and law enforcement around the world. I have a great idea, STOP everything you are doing now and lose the lawyers (nobody likes lawyers, really). Get back into the studio and create something worthwhile, stuff those CD’s full of entertainment and sell it for $10.
Lets see. 100 million CD’s at $10 as opposed to 1 million at $20. Do the math and for god sakes get that music executive a calculator because odds are he still doesn’t get it. One last thing, get your house in order, the artists are starting to promote themselves on the internet, many successfully. RIAA are you listening.
DRM is an unnecessary evil – so long as trust is well placed.
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26 Comments
News
March 10th, 2008
at 10:19am
http://media.pirillo.com/“>Video Help</a> | <a href=”http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow”>Add to iTunes</a> Related Content: Meeting Steve Jobs Apple Computer, Inc. Should Hire Maxxuss, Not Sue Him O CanadaDRM and GreedAvenue Coupons
Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2
December 16th, 2007
at 4:16pm
Two bullies fighting. Comcast is going after the NFL in court over what Comcast perceives as the NFL trying to get folks to switch carriers. Too bad so many don’t have that option. To leave Comcast. Via The Consumerist.Chris Pirillo highlights Bruce Munro on DRM issues. Interesting look back at the short-sighted practices of the Recording Industry. Funny but too true. CrunchGear on installing Vista SP1. The NY Times highlights the administration’s efforts to give immunity to the Telco’s on the warrantless search
Left Of Center
December 14th, 2007
at 12:24pm
Chris Pirillo »DRM and GreedPosted 110 minutes ago
Matt
December 14th, 2007
at 6:51am
So very true. I am glad that Apple is slowly but surely moving to drm free music with their iTunes+ store.
As with artist promoting themselves it is true, artist don’t need major record labels! All a band needs is a Myspace with a thousand friends, a decent EP, and some good fans that will pass the word along. In todays music industry its a good thing to be unsigned instead of tied up a mess with a record company. Independent is the future of music.
Pete Steege
December 14th, 2007
at 9:01am
Hi Chris,
I see a lot of parallels between CRM and the blogosphere. Scoble’s got the right idea: http://scobleizer.com/2007/12/11/steal-my-content-please/
My post on this: http://storageeffect.com/2007/12/12/content-yours-mine-and-ours/
Tedious
December 14th, 2007
at 9:24am
RIAA members act as if they are the creators of the music they sell to vendors. They claim to represent artists when in fact they only protect their own interest as middleman.
The “recording industry” is irrelevant now that the tools of production and the tools of distribution are cheap and plentiful.
With the iTunes Store artists can sell straight to the vendor, and with a web site they can sell directly to the listeners!
Why have a middleman at all?
Miiikeee
December 14th, 2007
at 11:04am
What’s even more greed is the RIAA wanting non-profit stations such as mine to pay royalties on music we are promoting for them. We derive no income from the station, but they want a portion. Greed is one of the kinder words I have for the RIAA.
boredcollegekid
December 14th, 2007
at 5:18pm
Why has DRM not failed?! I can’t copy my own songs I own to my PC! Give me a break, the longer DRM lasts the more incident people harmed, pirates don’t care about DRM and can find ways around it easily, its the single mothers and the 14 year olds that simply want to copy some songs onto the newest MP3 player that get screwed
H2Glitch2007
December 14th, 2007
at 5:18pm
I hate having to tell people why the music they download from online music stores wont play on their ipod. I simply can not stand DRM.
Ryan
December 14th, 2007
at 5:38pm
Down the DRM! Chris Pirillo for President!
GergCofC
December 14th, 2007
at 5:47pm
I hate DRM. I try to buy the actual CD whenever possible–the extra price doesn’t seem to hurt that much since I can use the music the way I want to!!
Michael Rivera (mrivera1)
December 14th, 2007
at 5:48pm
I think DRM isn’t good too. Why shouldn’t people be able to do what they want “legally” with the music they have purchased. Because of DRM, I cannot even use the music I buy in my home movies and stuff. I think DRM is just another form of Big Brother telling us what we can and cannot do. We paid for it, and we should be able to do whatever I want with it legally and on any operating system and every program.
macworld
December 14th, 2007
at 6:10pm
I think the whole mess of drm really needs to be tidied up. It is severely obtuse and makes no strive for the betterment of society!
bitshift
December 14th, 2007
at 6:18pm
DRM is the devil. Music artists should be happy that their music is being shared on the internet, it opens their music up to people all over the world and i’m sure there are plenty of people who purchase the actual cd of an artist they like after downloading and listening to a song they like.
SerenadedAbyss
December 14th, 2007
at 7:03pm
Okay.. this is the best blog entry I have ever read…
I wish that cds where cheaper but of course unless they do decide to stop trying to suck money out of teenagers… but of course.. its not going to happen…
Great blog entry Chris Pirillo I agree with it 100%.
MikeWindowsLaptop
December 14th, 2007
at 7:21pm
I hate DRM, it must DIE!
wCurtis
December 14th, 2007
at 7:27pm
Is there anyway to take of the DRM format to put the song like on your mp3 player or psp. thanks.
Czar
December 14th, 2007
at 8:05pm
yea i absolutely agree. drm is an evil that must be abolished! :P
ahdoublexl
December 14th, 2007
at 8:20pm
The record industry had been given countless oppotunity to do what was needed. They failed. Now they have to deal with the aftermath of their procrastination. They cannot return to the business model of yesterday. They will adapt, or die.
Mitchell
December 14th, 2007
at 8:30pm
Im glad Chris doesn’t put drm on his videos. If he did, I probably wouldst watch them.
nate
December 14th, 2007
at 10:32pm
it was all their fault to drive vinal off the shelfs
BryanG831
December 14th, 2007
at 11:56pm
Do they really need more money, seriously, they are just greedy.
Teqjack
December 15th, 2007
at 7:08pm
Get rid of the lawyers? Uh, RIAA consists of the LAWYERS for the recording industry: companies are members of a pool sharing lawyers.
DRM originally made sense, meant to protect internal corporte data (memos, plans, schedules for those plans…) but the entertainment industry has managed to cripple it for such uses by encouraging wide availability of hacks which otherwise would at least have required some effort.
njtexsin
December 15th, 2007
at 10:44pm
how well do the decoding programs work. I’m new to most of this stuff but find this site informative on many topics
DRM and Greed ~ Chris Pirillo
October 20th, 2008
at 9:42am
[...] DRM and Greed [...]
RIAA are asholes
March 27th, 2009
at 4:24pm
its interesting to note in the RIAA’s website http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php the figures they quote about lost revenues and jobs if anyone has taken a look. How they worked them out I will never know; and I challenge you to.