Cyprus-Forum.com

[Hazza]

You haven't answered my question. Would the music industry give me a full refund if an album I bought was crap?

Actually, I'm going to put this to the test. I'll email EMI and tell them that I bought the Kid A album by Radiohead from a store in Cyprus, but the album is shite. The store won't give me a refund, so will they? Bet the answer will be a big fat no!

Buying an album on the strength of a single doesn't work for me I'm afraid. Too many 1 hit wonders who go on to release a pisspot album, not because the music industry is running out of money, or becuase "people like me is killing the music industry" but because record companies prefer people on how they look rather on how they perform. Its been like this for years, even before internet downloading was known.

[Main_Source]

It's not up to the music inustry to give you a refund, its the retailer. The retailer bought the CD from the wholesaler, as product to sell in their shop. I know many music outlets where you can return CD's, i've returned records to HMV becuase they werent the right mix, etc...you should take that up with the retailer.

As for the CD being crap...well, at the end of the day...no matter how watered down the music is, the Radiohead album is a peice of art...and you may think its crap but another person may think its good. I dont think its up to the record company to reimburse you because you think its crap...thats stupid. Anyway, as Radiohead is an established band...I dont think the record comapny has that much input in the musical content of Radioheads album. You should take the reimbursment up with Radiohead.

Dont get me wrong...I know record comapnies put out a LOT OF CRAP...i've worked for a well known indepandant label AND well known major label...I know the shit that goes on and i know most of the people in record companies dont know fuck all about music or the people they are marketing too....but with record companies having there budgets slashed, it leaves less of a chance for fresh new talent to get the right exposure.

Besides, I still dont think you can be passionate about music or a collector and just have downloaded blank CD's. I want the real deal.

[devil]

Apart from the moral and legal issues, which I've already evoked, there is also a technical issue. A full CD contains 600-700 Mb of digital data. If you compress this with, e.g., MP3 (which was designed for the audio of a video, not as a standalone application; it stands for layer 3 of an MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) file and is heavily compressed with a codec. When you play such a file, you do real-time decompression, but you have lost a lot of the data. The quality therefore suffers enormously.

If you downloaded an uncompressed full CD album with a Cytanet DUN line and a 56 kbit/s modem, it would probably take you over three days non-stop: cheaper to buy the CD!

Real music buffs abhor the quality of downloads.

[Piratis]

Music will not die if the music industry does. Music existed long before that and it will continue to exist.

When/if the industry dies, then the artists that do this job because they love it will be allowed to reach people directly and get the publicity they deserve, and not the duplicity their company bought for them.

[Main_Source]

Piratis, of course music will not die if the industry does.

but let me ask you this, how is a new independant label based in Brazil, supposed to let YOU in Cyprus know about its music, without the funds to market abroad. How do you know that there isn't an artist the otherside of the world that you may like, if they havent got the funds or the ability to let you know who they are.

Also, a record comapny is a business. They have to make sure their primary concern with regards to promoting and releasing are the artists who are guaranteed to sell (which are usually not my cup of tea). With a cut back in budget, they wont have the money to substantially promote fresh artists.

Lastly, why should the ARTIST themselves not be rewarded for their artistic ability? They are the first people to lose pocket, as any money that comes in from a music release first goes to the record company to pay off the advance given to the aritist. The artist only receives roylaty monies after the advance has been paid off.

Most of the excuses I have heard for downloading is a cheap shot at trying to excuse the fact that people are to tight to go and buy music.

I do not have a problem with downloading deleted music, as those tracks are quite hard to find...but I dont agree with downloading a whole up to date music collection...it's ethically wrong.

[demetriou_74]

the majority of the songs i download are not on a record lable. all my friends produce their own songs and post them on the internet for free. However i also have lots of copied CD's. not havin the case does not bother because they all go onto my iPod so a case will just waste space.

my friend does not know how to download entire albums using piratebay.net can anybody explain how.

[Main_Source]

demetriou, if people want to produce music with no monetary reward, then thats fine. I know this happens in the House scene a lot now.

As for Ipod's...Demetriou, what happens if you lose it or it's stolen?? Will your entire music accumilation ( I want use the word collection...you aint a collector) be lost forever?

[demetriou_74]

no its all savedonto my computer so i can just put it on the new one i buy. (once i find a job)

[Piratis]

Main Source,

Artists can use the internet to promote their songs. They can email them to radio stations etc. There are ways.
Today all music is control by the industrialists. Even radio stations get lists with the songs they have to promote. I don't think music will lose if it gets less industrialized and less about money.

Artists will still be rewarded for their contribution, however it will be a more fair reword and not the millions some of them are used to make today.

[Main_Source]

Piratis, E-Marketing costs money. Many small labels or even large record companies who want to promote via the net go to e-marketing agencies.

You can use guerlla style marketing via the net and get people to post info about artists on forums and circulate emails...but to do a substantial job this costs money.

Anyway, most big radio stations only play high profile songs from major record companies, its not as easy as just e-mailing your song to a radio station. its a very tricky process to get your song on a big station. If you are a new artist and on a pirate radio station (which I belive is vital to new artists these days)...then you could get played on a pirate but if people are then going to download those songs they have heard on the station and not buy them...then how is that new artist supposed to survive and put out more material? How do you see these new artists gettin rewarded in order to get by?

What if a brilliant artist spends 5 years of his life dedicated to gettin signed by a major record company and lives off no money, because he hasnt got time for a decent job...then after his first album...receives shit money and it's time to give up and find a 9-5 job. What if that artist was someone like Stevie Wonder..we could lose potentially fresh and credible artists because the reward really isnt worth it.

The real music that would suffer through illegal downloading are the fresh credible artists who are not commercial...but if they see no money at the start of there career...then how do they survive?