Label Rushes Eminem Release Due To Downloading

from the and-still-number-one... dept

Joe Schmoe writes "Eminem CD sales impressive despite music sharing... Actually, that Eminem CD sales are impressive at all is a story unto intself, but I digress... " There was a lot of talk last week about the fact that the Gracenote database showed the Eminem CD at number 2 despite it not being released yet. Apparently, that made their label rush the release to get legitimate copies into stores, and guess what? It's still the number one album in legitimate sales. They quote some people from the music label who are still complaining about all the money they're losing. It's tough to generate much sympathy when the album is selling more than any other album right now. Of course, the other interesting thing about the hubbub from last week is that it probably had very little to do with people downloading MP3s, because the CDDB database was reading CDs that people actually put into their drives - and not what MP3s they were listening to. So, even if bootleggers were downloading the CD to make their own copies, I'd think that most people were buying bootleg copies off the street. In fact, the original reports suggested most of the bootlegs were found in NY and LA where it's fairly easy to find bootleg copies of CDs - which have been around since well before people were downloading music.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Cory, 31 May 2002 @ 11:10am

    Ugh.

    How can they be possibly losing money that is greater than their cost of creation ? If they paid him 5 million and it cost them 25 million to market, create and distribute the CD then they spent 30 million bucks. So if they made 100 million off of it then that seems like a damn good profit to me.

    Greedy bastards ... Oh we could have made 200 million, we lost money. Waaaaah !

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2002 @ 11:36am

    still stealing

    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... more justification for theft from the "everything should be free" crowd. Don't you kiddies have some illegal file downloading to do?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Mike (profile), 31 May 2002 @ 11:49am

    Re: still stealing

    And, as per usual, your response is so insightful. I'm not from the "everything should be free" crowd, and never have been. I'm from the "businesses should realize that they're pissing off their customers" crowd. Of course, if you actually read what I wrote you might understand that. But, instead, you prefer to be anonymous and insult people.

    So... if you ever come up with a real argument against what we've said, feel free to share it.

    As I've said numerous times, I don't do any file sharing. I don't have any MP3s that aren't from CDs I don't own. That seems to go against the whole of your argument.

    All I've been trying to say is that the music labels are being shortsighted in not embracing the internet as a distribution mechanism. Instead, they're calling their own customers criminals, when there's little evidence that that's true on a widespread basis. In fact, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary - suggesting that (on the whole) music downloading increases sales.

    And, you come along and call us names.

    I'd love to see a real argument out of you, but if you don't have one you can keep calling us names. That's fine with me.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Cory, 1 Jun 2002 @ 11:27am

    I dont need a subject. hehe

    And my point, anon coward, wasnt that since they are greedy bastards that its okay to steal from them. My point was simply that they are greedy bastards. hehe

    Unlike Mike, I have downloaded music that I dont own and if I enjoy it - I grab all the songs off the CD to make sure its worth spending the money on.

    The record industry pissed me off way before MP3z with churning out crap CD's and charging upwards of $20 for them.

    However though, the genie is out of the bottle and has been out for so long there is no way its going back in. I really doubt anything the industry does at this point can turn it around in their favor - especially because it seems all their will is bent on litigation and lobbying instead of R&D and innovation.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Ron Taylor, 3 Jun 2002 @ 6:17am

    purposley leaked

    Am I the only one who thinks that the record label leaked the record before the release on purpose? It is getting a lot of press, and more importantly it is making a case for the RIAA that file sharing hurts sales.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    superman, 2 Jun 2006 @ 2:08pm

    fuck u

    feminem is such a pussy not even as
    tall as a girl. what a faggot bitch
    cocksucker he is. he must have
    sucked a lot of cock to get his cd. hes a talentless coward and whore for the music industry. and anonymous coward sucks a lot of cock and is an idiot

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.