This is 2011. We've finally hit a point where artists can self-promote to the point where they can earn as much money as a signed act without a studio behind them. Furthermore, their fan base will be smaller, but they'll be more engaged, and more likely to buy. If I was an artist, I'd rather have 10,000 fanatics than 1 million casual fans. With the advent of the internet, any Artist can now achieve this without a label.
So yeah, I blame the Artists. If they had chosen the wiser path, and done this on their own, they wouldn't need a label, and a label they wouldn't be signed to wouldn't be stealing their profits.
Or to distill this for any Artists who may be reading: Wake up and smell the savings guys! The suits in Hollywood and Nashville are giving you 50 cents every time they sell a $20 CD with your hard work on it! A record contract is NOT the answer! Your fans ARE the answer!
Beyond the other arguments that the issue here is basic human communication rather than a technology issue...
"In fact, Google's setup here is even more conducive to privacy than pretty much everything else, because it actually gives you the ability to block that ability on each thing you share."
I'm pretty sure this should nip 100% of this issue in the bud before it becomes an issue. With this feature, the only reason something wouldn't remain private is if the original poster forgets to make it private, and if they do, then the fault doesn't lie with Google, it lies with the idiot who forgot to check the damn box.
Or in other words, this is another case of a flawed user, not flawed technology.
Mike covers most of what I'd like to say, but I thought I'd add one counter-argument Mike seems to have overlooked:
"There are three big reasons for not doing this: first, ... second, your product price says something about the quality and intended audience of your product"
Stop. Just stop right there. Anyone who has ever paid $549 for Microsoft Office, then tried OpenOffice knows good and well this is sugar-coated BS on a stick. Price is NEVER a mark of quality. In some specific markets - which does NOT include software - cost can be used as a measure of quality. However, Price isn't Cost. Cost is a measure of the resources the company puts into a product, which should sometimes be an accurate measure of what they get out of it. Price is a measure of what the average idiot is willing to pay for it. Price is a measure of greed, and the stupidity of the consumer. Price can even be seen as an indicator of how well the overall global Economy is doing at any given point in time. However, price is never, NEVER an indicator of quality. To confuse price with cost is a grave mistake.
This is important because Mr. Muscat doesn't seem to understand the difference. If he did, he'd know that software development has an incredibly low resource cost when compared to virtually every other industry. Basically, power and an internet connection. This is how Google was still serving over 12,000 hits per minute before they finally moved it out of Larry Page's garage. The primary cost of software development (including web software) is time. Virtually every language can be developed for FOR FREE. You could spend $2,000 on Visual Studio, but you could also use Eclipse for free. However, no matter how hard you work, how much code you can pump out, and how skilled you are, you gotta sleep eventually. To that end, the real cost of software development, barring something on a massive scale like Google, is time, electricity, and an internet connection. That's all.
When your startup cost is under $1,000/month, you can go work at McDonald's for $7/hour and code it in your free time. The concept that you must charge your users $19.95/month before you ever get off the ground is kinda crazy.
Also, I love the way that Mr. Muscat is giving away his work - writings, which cost him no money, no raw materials, only his time - for free, supported by ads. Yes, I realize this is to help sell books but...oh wait, that's right, he's giving away some of the product for free in an effort to sell the rest of the product for money. Like a free trial, or a premium version upgrade to software, or something like that. Well done Mr. Muscat. You just proved the very point you're trying to disprove...
On the post: More Details On Spanish Music Collection Society Corruption: Accused Of Stealing $550 Million From Artists
I Blame the Artists
So yeah, I blame the Artists. If they had chosen the wiser path, and done this on their own, they wouldn't need a label, and a label they wouldn't be signed to wouldn't be stealing their profits.
Or to distill this for any Artists who may be reading: Wake up and smell the savings guys! The suits in Hollywood and Nashville are giving you 50 cents every time they sell a $20 CD with your hard work on it! A record contract is NOT the answer! Your fans ARE the answer!
On the post: First Totally Bogus Privacy Issue Over Google+ Raised
Not an issue
"In fact, Google's setup here is even more conducive to privacy than pretty much everything else, because it actually gives you the ability to block that ability on each thing you share."
I'm pretty sure this should nip 100% of this issue in the bud before it becomes an issue. With this feature, the only reason something wouldn't remain private is if the original poster forgets to make it private, and if they do, then the fault doesn't lie with Google, it lies with the idiot who forgot to check the damn box.
Or in other words, this is another case of a flawed user, not flawed technology.
On the post: The Misconceptions Of 'Free' Abound; Why Do Brains Stop At The Zero?
Price as a measure of quality?
"There are three big reasons for not doing this: first, ... second, your product price says something about the quality and intended audience of your product"
Stop. Just stop right there. Anyone who has ever paid $549 for Microsoft Office, then tried OpenOffice knows good and well this is sugar-coated BS on a stick. Price is NEVER a mark of quality. In some specific markets - which does NOT include software - cost can be used as a measure of quality. However, Price isn't Cost. Cost is a measure of the resources the company puts into a product, which should sometimes be an accurate measure of what they get out of it. Price is a measure of what the average idiot is willing to pay for it. Price is a measure of greed, and the stupidity of the consumer. Price can even be seen as an indicator of how well the overall global Economy is doing at any given point in time. However, price is never, NEVER an indicator of quality. To confuse price with cost is a grave mistake.
This is important because Mr. Muscat doesn't seem to understand the difference. If he did, he'd know that software development has an incredibly low resource cost when compared to virtually every other industry. Basically, power and an internet connection. This is how Google was still serving over 12,000 hits per minute before they finally moved it out of Larry Page's garage. The primary cost of software development (including web software) is time. Virtually every language can be developed for FOR FREE. You could spend $2,000 on Visual Studio, but you could also use Eclipse for free. However, no matter how hard you work, how much code you can pump out, and how skilled you are, you gotta sleep eventually. To that end, the real cost of software development, barring something on a massive scale like Google, is time, electricity, and an internet connection. That's all.
When your startup cost is under $1,000/month, you can go work at McDonald's for $7/hour and code it in your free time. The concept that you must charge your users $19.95/month before you ever get off the ground is kinda crazy.
Also, I love the way that Mr. Muscat is giving away his work - writings, which cost him no money, no raw materials, only his time - for free, supported by ads. Yes, I realize this is to help sell books but...oh wait, that's right, he's giving away some of the product for free in an effort to sell the rest of the product for money. Like a free trial, or a premium version upgrade to software, or something like that. Well done Mr. Muscat. You just proved the very point you're trying to disprove...
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