The RIAA are greedy! (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Jones]

I see no point to the constant machinations of the RIAA except a bottomless well of greed. In all of these countless lawsuits against internet peer-to-peer services, all they point to is the poor artist not getting enough money. BULL! The artist gets 15% of a cds profit, IF they're a big artist. TLC were making $30,000 a year, at the height of their career! The Dixie Chicks have yet to clear a million. Where is all this wealth going? The RIAA and record executives (A.K.A. Greedy Bastards!). I think it's about time to shut down the RIAA and bring in some artist-friendly organization who spends more time promoting artists and less time worrying about a perfectly legal practice of file sharing (see the fair use act). There, I'm done. I'm just EXTREMELY sick of seeing the artists and us get screwed while the lawyers and execs get richer and richer. It's about time the congress and courts did something to help everyone and not just the fat cats.

 

[Kevin T]

The RIAA are a bunch of greedy bastards!

thank you, captain obvious!!! i'm going to site-see around the port, can you tell me when the s.s. no shit is boarding again?

kevin t

 

[Jeremy Jones]

Well, it's obvious to us, but maybe an RIAA executive is reading and I was hoping to make his day.

 

[Kevin T]

yes, let us all hope that all the riaa executives and mpaa executives alike will read. me thinks though they're too busy counting our money.
kevin t

 

[Carl Johnson]

It's not like the recording industry has an exclusive on greed, executives keeping the lions share of profits while passing on what's left to employees is perfectly normal.

 

[Jeremy Jones]

Yes, but when your "employee" makes millions of dollars for you and you toss them the leftovers, it's a little different. People are paying to hear the artist. Interestingly, if Napster had worked, and a pay service was a reality, then 50% would go to the artist and 50% to Napster, then the artists would've been in a MUCH better situation. People could download and burn their OWN mix of music and pay a flat monthly fee. Those fees would be collected and then distributed to the artists. Let's see. If 5 million people were on it back then and they charged $10 a month...$50 million. Split it, $25 million dollars to artists a month. By the way, did you know Prince is selling his own music now? He doesn't use the recording industry anymore. He sells directly to stores and keeps a much larger percentage and is making much more money. Of course, that's Prince.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

I hear you.

I was going to buy a CD today for the first time in 6 months, but couldn't bring myself to pay some arbitrary price. $20.99 for the CD I wanted, $19.99 for a music DVD...Hmmmm.

I'm surprised DVDs aren't priced at $42.99 each.

-JNS

 

[Jeremy Jones]

You do realize that for $20.99 you can get AT LEAST 50 blank cds. And, I KNOW that the industry gets a better deal on blanks than we do. And they wonder why people share music. At least at $19.99, you get a movie, extras, and sometimes even a soundtrack on a dvd. I mean, at least you get SOMETHING for you money.

 

[BrianB]

You do realize that for $20.99 you can get AT LEAST 50 blank cds.

As has been said time & time again, you're not paying for the media. You're paying for what's on the CD. That's the 'expensive' part of the equation.

Anyone got a link to a breakdown of the 'cost' of a retail CD? What percentage goes to the retailer, distributor etc?

 

[Mike Broadman]

Jeremy, this may make you feel better:
www.disciplineglobalmobile.com
Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame started his own company because he got sick of E&G, his former record company. DGM now handles a whole bunch of artists besides Fripp and Crimson stuff, including Peter Hammill and John Paul Jones. DGM gives artists ownership rights to their material. It's a smaller business model, but a more fair one.
There are quite a few companies with unique ways of distributing music that go outside the scope of Big Evil Record Company practice.

 

[Ryan Spaight]

As has been said time & time again, you're not paying for the media. You're paying for what's on the CD. That's the 'expensive' part of the equation.

How come I never hear anyone complain, "Why is this book so expensive? I can buy a ream of paper for a lot less."

Ryan

 

[Jeremy Jones]

Paperbacks are $5. It's a good pricepoint. CDs are now at almost $20. It's rediculous. Especially when dvds are about the same price. Anyway, truly, it doesn't matter. People think they're getting ripped off so they're sharing the music. I just think that the RIAA should back off and let the public LEGALLY share their music. They're rich enough. Not only that, but they had a record-selling year(no pun intended) WITH all the sharing. They would come off much less evil if they'd just quit suing everyone.

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Where do you people who see CD's for $20+ shop? I only buy CD's at Best Buy, Target, etc. and I've never seen a single CD over $20 at any of those stores. They might lack some of the obscure stuff that a Barnes and Noble might have, but you can always find that stuff on-line.

 

[BrianB]

Andrew, I believe the poster of the $20.99 is from Canada. So I presume that's $20.99 CDN, which is a super expensive $13.99 US (approximately).

 

[Jason Quillen]

I'm curious as to where you guys shop too. I live in a college town and buy my CDs at a small local store and most of the time everything is $12, even new releases. I can think of a few places that charge $18 but you just learn to avoid them...

JQ

 

[Ken Leggatt]

I am from Canada and I haven't paid mpre than 15 bucks CDN for a CD in years. That is about 9 USD. I have no problem paying for the CD. If you like it buy it. Don't download and steal it.

 

[Rachael B]

Shouldn't the unfair chargebacks labels make against their artists be mentioned. Damn, that marketing sure is expensive, that studio time yup it's high dollar...! I'd say the recording artists are being treated as badly as us customers. Have you ever heard the expression, "Big Five", as in the big five's music cartel? As much as they're charging for these CD's, it seems they can't be bothered to fairly compensate the help either. I'd say the industry is a ship, adrift, in the sea of dreams, merrily, merrily, merrily, management is just a dream. An, they're lost in Austin again too...

 

[Patrick Sun]

Paperbacks are creeping up in the $8-$10 range nowadays. I rarely see CDs priced over $18, and they are usually $12-16 at stores.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Where do you see a $10 paperback? The highest I've ever seen, and this is just recently, was $7.99.
I do a healthy mix of file-sharing and CD buying. I don't keep the songs I don't buy a CD for... I use filesharing as an advanced radio.

 

[Ted Lee]

there's no doubt that cd's are getting more expensive.

just this weekend tower records put this four-page full size color add.

they were touting all these cd's at sale prices: 14.99 (i think). i almost laughed. they call that a sale? best buy had the same ones for 11.99.

like everyone already stated, you just have to learn where to shop. a friend of mine almost bought some cd in the mall - they wanted like 18.99. i had to slap him upside his head, but he got the point.