I think it's absolutely amazing how the record industry keeps ignoring other possible factors for the declining sales: 1. The US is in the midst of a severe economic downturn. 2. We're getting to the point where a new DVD is often cheaper than a new CD. When faced with a cheaper price for 3-4 hours of video/audio over a more expensive product with an hour of audio, which is the consumer going to choose? Duh. 3. The US recording industry basically got greedy and stopped putting out so many CD singles in the hopes that consumers would buy the whole CD. They didn't buy the full-length, they just started downloading the songs they wanted. 4. Not to mention so much crappy music on the market today, combined with completely inadequate promotion for the few worthy releases. 5. Treating their customers as criminals through copy-protection schemes that work poorly, if at all. Hey, I've got an idea... Let's alienate the paying customers we have left! Grrrr... -----Original Message----- From: Alan [mailto:alanevil@bellsouth.net] Sent: Mon 3/3/2003 10:08 PM To: orb@mailman.xmission.com Cc: Subject: [Orb] OT for the most part: death to major labels To give you an idea of what we're (music fans in general) up against there follows an of e-mail and the reply to it from the "Readings" section of the latest (March 2003) Harper's Magazine: "

From an October email exchange between Holger Turck and EMI Music in Germany. Translated from the German by Ben Ewing.

Dear Sir or Madam, Yesterday I purchased the copy-protcted TOTO CD "Through the Looking Glass." The reverse side reads: "It is designed to be compatible with CD audioplayers, DVD players and PC-OS, MS Windows 95, Pentium II 233 MHz 64 MB RAM or higher." This statement is definately false. - In reality, only tracks 1-8 are playable in my DVD player. I don't own an ordinary CD player anymore, making this CD worthless. - In reality, my Macintosh plays only tracks 1-7. Result: the CD is worthless. - In reality, my PC would play the CD only if I were to use the software found on the CD itself. I am very careful when selecting the software that I install on my computer, and I refuse to be coerced into using proprietary software. As a result, this CD is worthless. This is all the more regrettable, as I am a dedicated fan of the group TOTO and own -- among other items -- all of their albums. It's a pity that YOU have prevented me from being able to add their most recent work to my collection. You altogether ignore the simple fact that every purchaser is -- by law -- allowed to make a copy of his purchased CD. Your behavior is altogether illegal. As a result, I will not purchase another CD that is outfitted with copy-protection from your firm or from any other. How do you plan to win me back as a customer in the future? Sincerely, Holger Turck Dear Mr. Turck, We will spare ourselves the trouble of addressing those observations in your email wich are obviously uninformed. Simply realize: more than 250 million blank, recordable discs and tapes were sold and used this year, in comparison to 213 million prerecorded albums. Even without formal study in economics, it should be clear to anyone reading this that the music industry cannot continue to exist if the trend holds. The widespread copying of prerecorded audio material via the burning of CD-Rs can only be countered one way: namely, copy protection. We fear, however, that all these facts will not interest you in the slightest, as these measures will herald the end of free music, which surely won't please you at all. Should you legitimately have a playback problem with the CD that you complained about, we would ask that you specify the exact CD player model for us. The scenario you put forth -- multiple players failing to play the CD -- can only be the stuff of fairy tales, given our experiences. In the event that you plan to protest future releases of copy-protected CDs, we can assure you that it is only a matter of months until more or less every CD released worldwide will include copy protection. To that end, we will do everything in our power, whether you like it or not. Sincerely, Your EMI Team " How about that?!? I have well over 2000 cds in my collection and over 1000 lps. I refuse to purchase anything else from these arrogant bastards. I don't know about you guys but I run through a lot of CD-Rs every month and I NEVER copy cds. I use them to back-up data and to save my own projects. Fuck the major labels. Even if I did want to burn a copy of an album, would the person I gave it to buy it otherwise? NO. Just because they can't figure out the difference between shit and good music is no reason to force unusable music on the their customers. Serves them right for foisting has been dinosaurs and airhead bimbos on the buying public instead of talent. They have noone to blame but themselves. I hate to say it but the USA is probably the place where sales are declining the quickest. I would credit it this to the piss poor quality of most new releases as well as the monopolization (under the bullshit moniker of "deregulation") of our radios. Clear Channel Communications rules every market in the US so if you want to hear the worthless crap shoveled out by the big boys it's as close as your FM radio. Why buy this crap when you can tune it in? By the time most people that listen to that kind of garbage would have long ago lost the single or tossed the cd into the back of their car the song is just finishing its near continuous run on the radio. By the way, I'd recommend this latest Harper's for more than that letter. They also have a wonderful expose about the influence of a certain extreme "Christian" group over world politics that will chill most of you to the bone. www.psychicreform.com Who let that monkey in here!?! Dada is dead. Watch your overcoat. _______________________________________________ Orb mailing list Orb@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/orb