Quote:
Originally Posted by FRPLG
If everything is free then no one will make anything, innovate anything, do anything.
|
I will say this. I used file sharing programs in the past to download music, because I didn't think it was worth $15 to purchase an entire CD's worth of music for just three songs. This was pre iTunes days. Whatever I did think was worth a purchase of the entire album, I already had. Back in those days, I said that if they were willing to build a site in which I could purchase individual songs that were at a high CD quality for a low price, I'd support that! But, the site would have to provide everything I would ever want to find.
However, I will say this as well. Almost every single time I downloaded music, I wound up purchasing the CD on half.com or Amazon for like $ 0.75 to $3. I was a stickler for sound quality and I'm still that way today. MP3s that were at a 128 bit rate back then sounded horrible, and not many people ripped their songs at 320 back then. Anyways, it was more or less for me to preview the music and to see if it was something I'd listen to on a regular basis. Often times if it was something I had grown to really like, I'd just buy the CD (assuming I could get it cheaper on those above mentioned sites.) What I wound up not not listening to or just not liking, I deleted the files.
So basically, the point I'm making that in my experience, I wound up buying more music because I previewed it prior to purchasing it. I'm sure that's not true for everybody who has ever used a file sharing program to get music. Now since iTunes and other download stores have been established, pretty much anything I have ever downloaded without paying for first, I have either went back and purchased the CD (or vinyl since I'm into vinyl) or I have purchased the tracks off of iTunes. This is just an example of why these companies like the RIAA are missing the point with the technology.