well
 

some people here do think that the price of allof are not reasonable.
but if the money would been paid directly to the musicians in the future i am sure that they will more money than they are earning now.

if one record is sold 1.000.000 times in the world, than it will be downloaded for free by at least 10.000.000 people.

lets say one CD single is 10usd would be 10.000.000 USD.

the artist will get a max of 10% of the profit (profit maybe 4usd ) (normally between 2-5% max.)
so that would make in the best case around 0.25 USD = 250.000 USD.

lets say 4.000.000 people buy it online x 5 cent royalty per song = 200.000 USD

If it is cheap enough, people will buy it and stop stealing it.
the current prices are too high, as the cd pressing costs is something in the 0.40USD range incl. booklet and CD case.

i see a fair CD single price at 5USD, an album should not cost more than 15USD.

the record company will invest in marketing and promotions so the profit on which the royalty payment is based gets really less than half of the cd price.

THE current system will die soon, i give that system max. 5 years.
there will be new distribution channels and the artist will make the contract directly with a internet label in the future.

online music stores like itunes and allofmp3 will pay the royalty directly to the artists .

and artists like madonna or U2 will sell their albums directly from their homepages. etc.

there are 6.000.000.000 people on this earth, and i am sure 1/6 of that people can pay for allofmp3 like prices for music. if these people start all shopping online, there will be no need for artists to have an label anymore.

platforms like YouTube can do the marketing with a mouth spread base etc.


About windows, well as 90% of the private windows user are not paying for it , i would say if MS sets a cheaper price around 50USD , no body will steal their product anymore.

but as devices are getting cheaper and cheaper and smaller, i am sure that the future is not in windows itself, but in a portable universal network operating system, which will link all your devices from home , work, car , kitchen etc. and you will have the control over it through your watch or mobile etc.
so dont worry about MS they wont be there in another 10 years :).

just to inform you, i have 3 computers and on all pcs i have fully paid xp systems and office systems. i even have getright, trillian , and any other program fully paid.

because i am against the ripoff system of the music industry, this doesnt make me a thief...

dp

well
 

if they sell the original for 20USD in countrie like china to private user and companies at 40usd , than i am sure that the normal user will buy thta version and not the copy which these days can not be updated etc. as these are patched versions.

with the internet, there is a chance to drop the high price system but it is possible to earn more than before, as in this globalized world more and more people have acess to computers, can pay for computers etc.

so you can do 1. ) generate mass and earn more even you have cheaper prices or 2.) keep the price high, but you can only sell to a limited number of users.

there are methods to calculate at what price the best market price is reached, and how many units can be sold at a specific price.

i think that you agree that the windows system is totally overpriced, so that the normal user cant pay for it. or even if he/she can, they dont want to pay that price for it.
well if you cant pay for a porsche or a bmw, you dont go to your dealer and steal it, but with goods which are copyable without any loss of quality, people tend to steal it ..

dp

If Bill Gates ever manages to make XP activation uncrackable, he still won't make the chinese pay for it.

But even though they don't pay for their OS, they do pay for their computers and associated devices. There are so many people who are not willing or unable to pay for Windows that no hardware manufacturer can ignore that market.

If MS succeeds in locking out the pirates, the hunt for Linux drivers is over. In order to sell your hardware you'll have to supply the necessary drivers and other software to make your products work on whatever OS your customers use. And when those drivers and other software become available in China and India, they're automatically available to the rest of the planet.

One reason for microsofts virtual monopoly on the OS market is because so many people pirate it. Their business depends on extracting as much money as possible from those people who are willing and able to pay, and then let the rest use their software anyway to ensure it remains the de facto global standard.

A pirate-proof Windows will be the end of its near-100% market share.

Yes, but with the physical CD you get a couple of different mixes and possibly a "B-side".

You don't get that for the $.99 on iTunes.

Also, iTunes bitrate is not comparible to buying and ripping your own.

On the + side, downloads (legal ones) undermines record labels authorty on the public. It used to be the label who decided what track was the single. They still do as it is the one they ship to radio stations. But they don't when it comes to the public/consumers. It is now us who decide which or all tracks we want to buy of an artists album.

We can even create our own "best of compilations".

When it goes global on being able to buy digital format straight in a shop (bring your mp3 player, plug it in to a console, add songs to a cart, pay, load them on the mp3 player... Hmmmm this is an idea in the making here). We can start waving bye-bye to CDs as we know it. Just as vinyl will be available to the audiophiles CDs will only be an exclusive thing for us who actually like having a big CD collection and not just a fat ipod stuffed with music.

/E

/E

Same goes for software.

I want the CD with the booklets/manuals etc.

But price isn't everything. It's the added value.

I remember the vinyl days and where thought was put in to the artwork, linernotes, lyrics, great pictures etc.

Kids of today don't care about that, half the time. But they would if the packaging had an added value to the merchandise.

/E

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15323093/

well
 

this is a nice move but nothing more than marketing.
you can than just buy a credit number , enter it and you still can pay with visa.

visa knows, mastercard knows, and in my eyes they are cutting our rights as a consumer to pay for something .

Visa and master shouldnt be able to decide what can i pay for with my cards.
so if they dont like that i buy things from amazon will they stop accepting bills from amazon?

thats totaly :td: :mad:

yes
 

i understand that many wants booklets or other things, but for me it is enought if i have it on my pc. the booklet and all the things can be provided as pdf or jpeg.

i have hundreds of cds, but since 10 years i have not heart a CD .

i only listen to 192k mp3 or and that is enough. i dont need the booklets etc. as i dont see any value in looking at that .

so for me only the music has a value, nothing else.

about windows, well ms will never built up a 100% safe verification system.
there are too many groups out there who will crack the whole system.

but MS should look at the average earnings of a country. in china thats something between 50 - 150USD /month. it is clear that you cant sell a software at a price of 200USD in retail than.

and i agree that the monopol of MS is only because all the people are copying windows. so MS can only remain world market leader if the software is a defacto standard if the people copy that soft.

i am sure that for the future, the business model will change.
ASP is a keyword here. i think that the computer will only have a browser and you will do it on a machine of your provider , you can rent key components if needet and you pay for it for the used time etc.

this way computers will be nearly everywhere with internet acess, the computers will be in standby for a month without recharing etc.

so

lets see and wait.

dp

You're spot on. I'm also very concerned that record company executives are also going to have issues with making their Bentley lease payments on time.

Those, poor, poor record execs and artists. :(

I have been using these guys for a couple years now.

They have a great site and good software for the downloads.

Perhaps someone will figure out a solution, although I have to admire the moxy on these guys, telling the US government to take a hike and they would rather give the stuff away for free than doing what the US tells them.

Would you rather they just go back to being communists?

Has anyone been able to get to allofmp3.com recently? I keep getting a "Page Not Found" error.

its
 

working

Trouble in paradise:

Music downloading site AllofMP3 has come under renewed pressure after negotiations taking place between the US and Russian authorities.

The site, which offers cut-price music, was named as an illegal distributor in a document debating Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The two countries have in principle reached a deal to shut down sites which breach copyright rules.

so basically the site was a way to pay a fee to steal music that you could otherwise steal for no charge?

LOL