Pop Stars Learn To Live With Pirates

from the new-business-models dept

A very interesting article about how musicians in China deal with the rampant piracy found in the country. In this case, it's not downloads, but people making copies of the CDs, of course. Some of the article has musicians whining about how they can't life the life of rockstars (not much pity there...), but much of it talks about how they're experimenting with different business models. The thing that I've found amusing about all the music industry arguments about "how will musicians get paid?" is that most musicians don't get paid. Or, at least, not very much. Anyway, in China, touring and live performances are more important, but so are corporate sponsorships. There are some problems with this as well, but (unlike the music industry's claims about what will happen around the world) music is still being made.
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  • identicon
    Jeremiah, 23 Feb 2003 @ 10:17pm

    Free music

    I guess the question is whether or not musicians should be paid for their creative abilities - whether or not we'll culturally support the idea that music can pay rent, utilities, groceries, etc.
    Example- Joe Musician offers music on his website, and you download a couple tracks, check them out, think "Not bad" and move one. Few weeks later, that same song pops up again in your playlist. You think "Yeah, i like that one". Time passes- the track pops up again in your playlist and you think "Wow i forgot that was still on there!"
    Now that you've (fictionally) thrice enjoyed a performance/exhibition of Joe's work, you've yet to been prompted to patronize or support in any way. Do you:
    A) PayPal Joe $1 and say "Thanks for the music."
    B) Keep the free mp3's, rationalizing that artists should consider themselves fortunate for the opportunity to appease your sensibilities,
    C) Blog repetitively about how you love/hate Joe's music,
    D) Just delete the damn thing and move on with life,
    E) Return to surfing pr0n

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      evona, 24 Feb 2003 @ 5:01am

      Re: Free music

      Beliefs like this are why we have bycycle locks.
      I suppose folks who believe intelectual property has no value, work for free. NOT

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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