There will be no more music allowed for the common folk anymore. The Internet has been taken over by the blood-thirsty capitalists of America. Can you believe this? All of the sudden there was silence, and then I realized that it had really happened. This is depressing and a real shame. The truth of the matter is that because of the freedom to play your own music people were becoming more stimulated and allowed to enjoy an unheard of realm of all kinds of music. Because of this they were going out to the stores and actually purchasing MORE music. The truth of the matter is there are too many greedy folks out there wanting even more and more music. This is unfortunate and I am really pissed. Sorry about the language but I cannot help it. Money, money and more money. Aren't there enough poor folks out there who should be attended to rather than letting the rich get even richer?
What I don't understand is how they can justify charging for the internet broadcast rights when radio stations already have the right and pay a fee to broadcast songs over radio waves. What difference does it make what the delivery method is - it's still broadcast. And what's worse is, very few artists are opposed to internet broadcasts. They only want the exposure, and internet radio gave it to a lot of artists who would never otherwise be played simply because they didn't fit into a playlist. What could have been a really promising new life for radio has been silenced, unfortunately. Instead, if they do broadcast, it will be sure-things, just like radio, and who really wants to listen to any of that junk anyway? The whole point of internet radio has been stabbed and is left, bleeding, to die.
The ironic things is that because of this Internet exposure I have become aware of other new and interesting bands and have actually gone out and purchased a couple of CDs which I normally would have never heard of. I think that this discussion will continue and hopefully in the end common-sense thinking will prevail. Money-mongers get out of my life!
Exactly! I have bought a LOT of music solely because I was able to track down an MP3 of the band's or found something streaming to listen to. The RIAA is amazingly ignorant of the power that free mp3s and internet radio could have and is instead reacting in a knee-jerk manner.
I wonder if some kind of official poll has been taken or other research conducted in order to determine whether or not free Internet Radio actually effects the music sales in a negative way. Some people can rightfully claim that the effect is negative, and indeed there are logical arguments which make sense and appear to support this. At the same time there are equally logical arguments for the other side of the coin. Too much emotional feelings muddle to discussion, which is a shame. I cannot imagine that a formal decision in an official government body is made without sufficient research into the pros and cons. We should then be asking ourselves why the pros (for us the cons) won out over the cons (for us the pros). Any ideas out there?
Well, one could point to the sales of Eminem's new album, which was spread widely through mp3s and prompted the early release of the album. It's sold millions now, and shows no signs of slowing down. I can't stand the guy or his music, but if he has done something that proves the RIAA wrong, more power to him.
In the meantime I have discover a new MP3 site called EMusic which "seems" to offer a good deal. For merely $9.95 a month you have unlimited downloads from a wide range of music, including complete albums. There is even a 14-day trial period during which one can try it out and download up to 50 songs. Seems okay so far, although not a whole lot of the artists I like seem to be available yet.