Newsweek NAILS the RIAA issue;

[Dr Mordrid]

Sept. 22 issue — The music industry can sue every middle-schooler from Poughkeepsie to Palo Alto, but record labels will not cure their woes if they continue to churn out cut-rate albums at top-rate prices. For the past five years, they’ve been pedaling anti-art: boy bands, Britney and “The Thong Song.” Judging by sales numbers, kids finally figured that a lot of artists were only as good as their Svengalis, or that an entire album by 98 Degrees was really just a single with filler.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/966393.asp

EXACTLY on the mark!!

Dr. Mordrid

[DukeP]

Agreed most heavily...

~~DukeP~~

[MultimediaMan]

You know, the U.S. took Microsoft to Court because they bundled Internet Explorer with it. MS, they argued, stifled competition and forced comsumers to buy a product that had thing they did not want.

One could argue, since Record Companies routinely "fill" their albums with cuts that never get near radio and only popup during shuffle play, that we are being charged for something we didn't want as well.

[The Rock]

I agree completely. The beef I have with all that is I remember buying (or stealing ) cassettes as a teenager when CDs first hit. At the time, the average cassette cost about $10-$14CDN. CDs land, and they cost a lot: usually over $30CDN. People complained, and were told that CD is new technology, costly to produce, and that we're paying for its early adoption. We were told that prices would drop once there was widespread adoption. And surprise surprise, when that happened the prices never dropped AT ALL. Am I the only person thats noticed this or am I hallucinating? I'm only 33, so you old guys must have heard that song and dance. Of course, you *can* get the top 20 CDs at decent prices I guess, but going back to that article look what that top 20 is saturated with: GARBAGE. Anyone with non-top-20 tastes (i.e. all of us I hope ) is SOL. I'll stop ranting now.

[DukeP]

Oh no. Please dont stop. Your starting to make sense!!


~~DukeP~~

[Technoid]

Originally posted by The Rock
I agree completely. The beef I have with all that is I remember buying (or stealing ) cassettes as a teenager when CDs first hit. At the time, the average cassette cost about $10-$14CDN. CDs land, and they cost a lot: usually over $30CDN. People complained, and were told that CD is new technology, costly to produce, and that we're paying for its early adoption. We were told that prices would drop once there was widespread adoption. And surprise surprise, when that happened the prices never dropped AT ALL. Am I the only person thats noticed this or am I hallucinating? I'm only 33, so you old guys must have heard that song and dance. Of course, you *can* get the top 20 CDs at decent prices I guess, but going back to that article look what that top 20 is saturated with: GARBAGE. Anyone with non-top-20 tastes (i.e. all of us I hope ) is SOL. I'll stop ranting now.

well, it is almost exactly what I myself experienced at that time

[Kooldino]

Great bands have great full albums. If you like Weezer, for example, go buy "Pinkerton".

Anyway, regardless of how good the music is or is not, etc, they still listen to it. kazaa is full of bubble gum music, because people like it. No matter what, as long as people had music they liked, and could EASILY download it for free at their convenience, they'd do it.

[Wombat]

The New Yorker nailed the RIAA with their latest cover art:

<IMG SRC="http://sims.berkeley.edu/~jhall/nqb/2003092601/newyorker_p2p_cover.jpg">

[DGhost]

hell yeah!