Download or be Damned

[subspatial]

I'm speaking at a conference in Australia this weekend about the past present & future of music.

 

The forum: "Download or be Damned" will discuss many issues involving music and recording.

 

My main discussion points will be:

 

*A comparison between Analog & Digital

Vynils/tapes vs CD/DVD vs MP3/iPods etc.

 

*The past present and future direction of music.

 

*Virtuality vs actuallity (software vs hardware)

 

 

*The ethics of Downloading

Copyright, patency, torrents etc.

 

 

I know (particularly) the last topic has been in heated discussion on this forum for a while now,

and so I'm asking for opinions, points of discussion, facts etc on any of this.

 

I'd love to discuss a global view of the current situation (involving downloads etc)

 

If anyone has any opinions on these or any ideas on other topics I would love ya feedback :)

 

Maybe especially about what you think will happen to copyright in the near future.......

 

:)

[Tenebrae]

Man, what I'd give to do a speech on that.

 

I'm quite the awesome at speeches.

 

I spoke at the St. Andrews Debating Society, the oldest - and some might say finest - debating society in the world.

 

As far as it goes - while an LP might represents a "real" version of a recording... digital has such greater fidelity, it's laughable to compare. When you can get a few weeks of music in the palm of your hand... that's the future. DJs will catch up eventually and we'll have people taking laptops to mix music... probably.

 

Music? Personally my opinion is that if musicians have any sense they'll forget labels and just do it online. Why? Money. If you do it online you can get 90% of the money from a song sold. With a record label... maybe 30%, if you're lucky. The RIAA are screwed - these are the actions of an organisation facing extinction.

 

Software vs Hardware? Hmm... well, I think that's a tricky one... I suppose the best point to raise is - you could make the best games console in the world tomorrow but if you had no one to program for it - what's the point? The Atari Jaguar was a case in point, years ahead of its time but no support. Hardware and software are symbiotic.

 

Downloading... well, there is no moral high ground.

 

You download copyright material without paying - that's theft. That's not really a debatable issue, it's just plain fact. Sure, if you download it when you had no intention of seeing it, more ethical but still illegal.

 

Torrents, as a method of distribution are stupendous in these days when bandwidth is not as cheap as we'd all like.

 

When it comes to TV shows (and NiteShdw has already called BSG as an example) they can be very beneficial. As Prophet Tenebrae sees it... well, the reason the MPAA fears torrents. It gives people the choice. Like DVDs but even more. If you don't like this film - don't pay. For Hollywood, that's anathema. They subsist on the myriad of mediocre and sh!t film they produce - films of course, being something you pay for before you see.

 

If you could see it and choose whether to pay - they're fubared. They also act out of fear... but unlike the RIAA, they aren't going to get screwed as badly... they're (representing) the content content creators AND distributing. The RIAA are basically just representing labels that mass produce garbage that they use their PR machine to buy. Naturally, the MPAA do pretty much the exact same thing but the difference is economic - economies of scale. The MPAA represent a bunch of studios with more money than we could imagine ever spending, to do movies. That's not going to change anytime soon... barring CGI getting a lot cheaper and a lot better.

 

The RIAA on the other hand are wetting their pants. They ostensibly do nothing but find talent and then skim. Any smart and good act can make money without signing to a label now. I hope they do. The RIAA has proven itself to be unworthy, let it writhe in agony.

[Guest c4evap]

As Prophet Tenebrae sees it... well' date=' the reason the MPAA fears torrents. It gives people the choice. Like DVDs but even more. If you don't like this film - don't pay. For Hollywood, that's anathema. They subsist on the myriad of mediocre and sh!t film they produce - films of course, being something you pay for before you see.[/quote']

Imagine if you had to pay for a new car before you test drove it? Or had to pay for your resturant food before it even arrived at your table? Music is one thing...you can hear a CD on the radio and think "Man, I like that group. I'm gonna buy that CD". But we only have word of mouth on movies and the itty bitty snippets they release for commercials. And those are usually better than the movie itself!!!

 

I remember an old Little Rascals EP where the kids put on a play. It was billed as "Pay as you go". If you don't like the play, you don't pay. I wish movies were like that. *sigh*

 

c4 :(

[subspatial]

Imagine if you had to pay for a new car before you test drove it? Or had to pay for your resturant food before it even arrived at your table?

c4 :(

 

oh crap..... I already have pay for my meal 'before' I get it ;)

 

 

Man, what I'd give to do a speech on that.

 

I'm quite the awesome at speeches.

 

:)

 

.........DJs will catch up eventually and we'll have people taking laptops to mix music... probably.

 

actually thats how i started doing electro music... ('bout 10 years ago)

..lots of DJ's are 'finally' starting to take in their laptops to gigs,

and play live samples with their LP's

 

 

the Conference was interesting, but hardly resolved any issues,

it just opened up more discussion.

 

But many points were raised on all aspects of music & technology etc.

I'm waiting for the 'notes' and recordings to be sent to me

and i'll post them here for reference and discussion later :)

 

thanks for ya help :)

[Tenebrae]

Oh, I'm not surprised that it didn't resolve issues. These things seldom do.

 

As to DJs using laptops... I'm no expert but it generally seems that it's still mainly decks. What do I know though.