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RE: If you're right, three things will likely happen -- none of which are Emily's fault.

Posted by David Smith on June 19, 2012 at 19:24:49

In Reply to: If you're right, three things will likely happen -- none of which are Emily's fault. posted by rbolaw on June 19, 2012 at 18:01:38:

"First, those corporations that provide Emily with her internet and cell phone service, or other enterprises working closely with them, will take over music distribution as well."

Why would they when they would be undercut by her illegal sharing anyway? They profit from the existing structure, there is little incentive for that to happen.

"Third, prices will fall until the illegal black market is no longer a significant threat."

Well, this is getting into a separate topic, but prices are already that low (see Spotify). As long as people are habitually disregarding the value of music a penny a decade for Emily's dream access to all music always would not be attractive. It's not about the price.

"But those prices are apparently still too high if consumers like Emily still prefer the black market."

It's not about the price. The reason Emily pays $2500 for her Macbook instead of swiping one from the table at Starbucks is not because that is the price point where she doesn't steal, it's because to her stealing a physical item like that is unethical. She doesn't feel the same about music.

"The Berlin Philharmonic now "sells" online videos of its concerts (directly, of course -- so much for DG). Not only can paying customers not copy these videos, they can only watch them for a limited time. The key question is, how much will classical music lovers be willing to pay for this?"

To clarify, they've become a record company themselves, doing the same things that DG does. They don't just do it in their spare time. I suspect customers would be willing to pay more to be able to own it and not be limited, but I don't see anything wrong with ventures like that - people in the music industry should be using the internet to find new ways to succeed.

"None of this is good news for the musicians, who are and will continue to be, "screwed, blued and tattooed", as one of my law school professors was fond of saying."

Well, there are different levels of "screwing". To have to payback $200k of a $1M advance because of "slow" sales is one thing, to get $0 because an entire generation (and naturally those that follow) has never paid a penny for a sound recording, that's something entirely different. And it's one thing for the people doing the screwing to be execs at a big record company penny-pinching, it's another for it to be Emily and people like her, and I think it's important that she know that that's what she's doing.

"Rather than being enslaved by a handful of record companies, they will be enslaved by a handful of internet and cell phone service providers."

Not if Emily doesn't pay anything for music.

You may be well aware or you may not be, but this is a generational issue. I invite you or anyone to take your own survey of young adults under the age of 22. I expect you will find many if not the vast majority has never spent a penny for a song, even once. I refer to Emily because of a couple things. I'm a little disturbed that something like this shows up on NPR of all places, but I think her frankness is quite representative of her generation and shows the issues. She is not an internet pirater, I'm quite sure she doesn't think she is doing anything wrong (and I'm quite sure she thinks swiping an iPhone or Macbook is wrong), and this comes from a lack of awareness on her part about the ethical implications of her practices.

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