"Fuck this long comment chain."
I bring you another addition to the (now) great file-sharing debate, in official post format.
Grandpa comments, "Ten dollars a month doesn't seem like much to me." Well, forgetting the fact that you used to buy coffee for a nickel, take a moment to think about that.
It is really hard to get concrete stats on music-swappers online, but the EFF claims as many as 60 million Americans use some sort of file-sharing software. Say 10% of those people paid the $10 file-swapping fee every month for a year. Unless I've got my decimal points out of whack, that would mean $7.2 billion dollars of pretty much pure profit going directly to the record companies per year (if record companies were still deemed necessary). No pressing or shipping of cds, no material to buy, and no promotion needed. Who's complaining now?
It's called progress, friend.
All this talk has reminded me of a classic article by Steve Albini that many of you have probably already read at some point. Revisit it here, as a reminder of how inefficient/unfair the music industry is.
I think all of us reading this blog are on the side of the music-makers. What's to debate, really?
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p.s. as of June 2005 11,456 people had been sued by the RIAA with 700 new lawsuits a month.
thanks for Albini link for those of us who hadn't read it and otherwise never would have.
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