Illegal Downloading Growing In UK

The amount of people illegally downloading music in the UK has risen to 7.7 million.

The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) said 1.2 billion tracks were illegally obtained this year, at a cost of £219 million to retailers.

The figures also revealed that more than three quarters of music downloaded in the country is acquired illegally, despite 67 online services all offering legal downloads.

BPI chief Geoff Taylor said illegal downloading had become a "parasite" and that new legislation was needed to try and stop it, reports BBC News.

"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector," he said.

Earlier this year, the BPI said music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years.

Thanks for the report to Gigwise.com.

Comments

[hugh20]

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

[MLCJracer]

lol hugh

[Zeletros]

"deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music"

You don't make a career by selling CDs cause you're not actually selling them, labels do, and they get most revenue.

[kacper_j]

...at a cost of £219 million to retailers...

I don't care about the retailers, I wanna know how much bands lost on this. I bet it's not even close to 219 milion

[jimihendrix6699]

well now a days a band could record themselves and do everything themselves. put their stuff on the internet, sell cd's at shows and do everything themselves basically. that also means you get complete control and get more profit. now if you get big enough a record company would be a good thing as they have a further reach as far as promotion goes but at a lot of it can be done by yourself. so illegal downloads wouldn't impact bands today like they would in the 90's. which is what i think everyone is comparing them to.

[x SiN x]

Zeletros wrote:

"deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music"

You don't make a career by selling CDs cause you're not actually selling them, labels do, and they get most revenue.

Yes but losing thousands of album sales to illegal downloads is a lot no matter how much you get ripped off by labels

[Zeletros]

x SiN x wrote:

Zeletros wrote:

"deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music"

You don't make a career by selling CDs cause you're not actually selling them, labels do, and they get most revenue.

Yes but losing thousands of album sales to illegal downloads is a lot no matter how much you get ripped off by labels

I didn't get what you were trying to say, if someone illegally downloads perhaps the band doesn't receive any $, they can however receive new supporters, who would feel like buying their sh1t.

[sk8aman23]

kacper_j wrote:

...at a cost of £219 million to retailers...
I don't care about the retailers, I wanna know how much bands lost on this. I bet it's not even close to 219 milion

with as big of a cut that those greedy wieners take, the bands surely lost out on AT LEAST a couple thousand dollars...

[Abacus11]

It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music...

Does anyone actually believe that? The recording industry wants you to believe that you're taking money out of artists' pockets but all you're doing is making it a little harder for record labels to get (stay) rich. Bands have NEVER made significant money from album sales.

[Kenbeek]

jimihendrix6699 wrote:

well now a days a band could record themselves and do everything themselves. put their stuff on the internet, sell cd's at shows and do everything themselves basically. that also means you get complete control and get more profit. now if you get big enough a record company would be a good thing as they have a further reach as far as promotion goes but at a lot of it can be done by yourself. so illegal downloads wouldn't impact bands today like they would in the 90's. which is what i think everyone is comparing them to.

That's a shitload of work and really hard. As much as record labels tend to rip off artists, they're not entirely useless.

[lefthandstrat]

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

Why?

I do it because i can't normally get hold of what I am after on CD, I go to a retailer and get the same BS over and over 'we can't get it/it's our of production' so then i try Internet sources such as Amazon and Ebay and the direct HMV website. to find that HMV have said the same as the record shops, Ebay is on a bid system at some stupid price and some idiot on Amazon is trying to sell a 6GBP CD for about 30GBP which I am not prepared to pay for a CD when the Vendor selling it is just profetering.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

I sometimes also Illegally download so i can listen to artists which are 'New' to me, then If I like that artist, I again delete the downloaded material and purchase A few Albums.

So yes, I agree that Downloading Illegally is a problem and understand the viewpoints from the industry, However, If Illegal downloading didn't exist then, in some respects, bands would have one less form of Indirect promotion.

[IEvan xD]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

Lol....

[dhruvrajvanshi]

Gene Simons wont be a happy man...

[m3tal_R3dn3ck]

lefthandstrat wrote:

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

Why?

I do it because i can't normally get hold of what I am after on CD, I go to a retailer and get the same BS over and over 'we can't get it/it's our of production' so then i try Internet sources such as Amazon and Ebay and the direct HMV website. to find that HMV have said the same as the record shops, Ebay is on a bid system at some stupid price and some idiot on Amazon is trying to sell a 6GBP CD for about 30GBP which I am not prepared to pay for a CD when the Vendor selling it is just profetering.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

I sometimes also Illegally download so i can listen to artists which are 'New' to me, then If I like that artist, I again delete the downloaded material and purchase A few Albums.

So yes, I agree that Downloading Illegally is a problem and understand the viewpoints from the industry, However, If Illegal downloading didn't exist then, in some respects, bands would have one less form of Indirect promotion.

Most bands have online merch stores, unless its some unsigned band that only uses Itunes to distribute its music. I have never had any trouble getting a hold of a CD that I want and I listen to a lot of small market bands.

[Ackj]

How do they know how many albums were downloaded illegally? If they have access to that information, certainly they know who is doing it, and thus can stop them. It's like saying "oh yeah, my neighbor shot 5 people yesterday, it's a problem" and then doing nothing. Sure it's not as serious of a problem, but if they're complaining about it, why aren't they doing anything?

[Burgery]

lefthandstrat wrote:

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

Why?

I do it because i can't normally get hold of what I am after on CD, I go to a retailer and get the same BS over and over 'we can't get it/it's our of production' so then i try Internet sources such as Amazon and Ebay and the direct HMV website. to find that HMV have said the same as the record shops, Ebay is on a bid system at some stupid price and some idiot on Amazon is trying to sell a 6GBP CD for about 30GBP which I am not prepared to pay for a CD when the Vendor selling it is just profetering.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

I sometimes also Illegally download so i can listen to artists which are 'New' to me, then If I like that artist, I again delete the downloaded material and purchase A few Albums.

So yes, I agree that Downloading Illegally is a problem and understand the viewpoints from the industry, However, If Illegal downloading didn't exist then, in some respects, bands would have one less form of Indirect promotion.

If you buy an album you are buying the right to hear the music, you don't have to delete the files you downloaded.

[Aléx]

"at a cost of £219 million to retailers."

Nope. 95% of albums I download I'd never have heard of and thus never have even considered buying if I hadn't downloaded them, so they're really not losing anything.

[lefthandstrat]

m3tal_R3dn3ck wrote:

Most bands have online merch stores, unless its some unsigned band that only uses Itunes to distribute its music. I have never had any trouble getting a hold of a CD that I want and I listen to a lot of small market bands.

I'm talking about real Old school rock and metal bands as well as a few well known names. For a while I couldn't get hold of Black Sabbath's Technical Ecstacy, all the ones i found were fetching 30GBP near enough on amazon. But yes I agree there are the options you outlined.

Burgery wrote:

If you buy an album you are buying the right to hear the music, you don't have to delete the files you downloaded.

That I didn't know.... But usually I Delete the downloaded music and rip from the CD's for my Ipod and other related devices as I can keep all my music at the same bitrate which helps equalize quality better.

[foopeppers]

It is well known that most money from the record sales goes to the men in suits behind the music and not the actual band... the band make their money from touring and merchandise sales. I think a lot of album's are overpriced especially if an artist happens to be dead like say Jimi Hendrix. When you buy a Jimi Hendrix CD hes not recieving anything obviously, and while his family might, it wasnt them who made the music.

to quote the article,"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector,"
I would also argue that if you tune into a mainstream radio station then all you will hear is a load of over produced crap come from no one with any real musical talent or originality. It is no wonder people are no longer prepared to pay for music anymore.

[Dynamo11]

I'll own up, I collect A LOT of vinyls and personally I don't think I should pay twice for teh same album (and converting them to mp3 is a pain in the arse) so I pirated quite a few albums.

[RAGEAHAULICA]

Gene Simmons is to music, what dog the bounty hunter is to crime.

[Pan-Tallica]

Checked.

[IRONMAIDENTLICA]

"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector"

Nearly every young musician or band I have seen or know usually offers their music for free...because they just enjoy making music. Mostly because most bands make money off touring and merch. while the record company reaps the benefits of CD sales

[KingHenrik1967]

make CD's cheaper and this will help... perhaps marginally. Recessions going on after all...

[hairypineapple]

Successful bands get to travel the world and do something they love every night. It's one big party. If a band is good enough, they will become successful. Bands who complain about people illegally downloading they're music can f*ck off. The relentless control freaks who are Record labels who sap creativity and rip off artists are only getting what they have coming to them.

[whitebluesboy]

Ackj wrote:

How do they know how many albums were downloaded illegally? If they have access to that information, certainly they know who is doing it, and thus can stop them. It's like saying "oh yeah, my neighbor shot 5 people yesterday, it's a problem" and then doing nothing. Sure it's not as serious of a problem, but if they're complaining about it, why aren't they doing anything?

And thus you have stumbled upon something not many people know. Telecom companies easily have the access to see who is downloading and what they are downloading but it is in their best interest to just sit back and watch. Think about it, if you are an internet service provider are you gonna stop someone from using your bandwith and downloading or are you gonna offer them a faster bandwith at a higher price?

U2's manager recently released an article about this that no one read. The future of the music business will lie in subscription service as a package provided from your ISP. Just wait.

[lefthandstrat]

foopeppers wrote:

It is well known that most money from the record sales goes to the men in suits behind the music and not the actual band... the band make their money from touring and merchandise sales. I think a lot of album's are overpriced especially if an artist happens to be dead like say Jimi Hendrix. When you buy a Jimi Hendrix CD hes not recieving anything obviously, and while his family might, it wasnt them who made the music.to quote the article,"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector,"I would also argue that if you tune into a mainstream radio station then all you will hear is a load of over produced crap come from no one with any real musical talent or originality. It is no wonder people are no longer prepared to pay for music anymore.

This,

Purely because, aside from the hendrix point (which is all true), the Stuff in the mainstream IS boring, repetitive, nothing special. In a way, and I sort of say it because I do it, if there is a lot of bands who are producing and writing very similar boeing material, then some downloaders will think 'wow that's not even worth paying for' (I would agree with that) hence why so much of it goes on. I mean when you want to buy a CD in store its like 13 or 14 quid for an overcommercialised artist. what's the point? seriously...

Yet there are some perfectly talented, amazing bands out there, who are struggling to make a name for themselves due to the commercial forces that be. If Commercialisation of music stopped existing then we would just get music being produced and bought because people enjoy listening to it and writing/performing it.

[Scourge441]

Checked.

Even if piracy hurts album sales, it has enormous potential to increase merchandise sales, which often give bands a much higher profit margin. Shirts sell for $15 and cost about $4 per shirt to print.

[Funk-E-Munk]

half of the music i download i would have never bought out of my own money, so really the retailers are not losing money in all cases of illegaly downloading!

[harpcicle]

If the government would stop raping everyone of their money with frivilous taxes then maybe they'd have more cash lying around to actually purchase the music instead of downloading it

[PowerStruggle]

no shit it's growing. the public is currently being bent over and harvested for every penny we're worth, from all sides.

on the album-downloading thing, I am actually in close contact with the guitarist of Evile and he has said himself that it isn't bullshit - it does seriously harm the band.

support your favourite bands bros.

[lefthandstrat]

harpcicle wrote:

If the government would stop raping everyone of their money with frivilous taxes then maybe they'd have more cash lying around to actually purchase the music instead of downloading it

yeah going to get worse cause the VAT will go up then all the other inflation changes as well....

[Nyhm]

Aléx wrote:

"at a cost of £219 million to retailers."

Nope. 95% of albums I download I'd never have heard of and thus never have even considered buying if I hadn't downloaded them, so they're really not losing anything.

this man speaks the truth

[Bassatron]

"lost £219 million", not necessarily because not everybody who downloaded a discography of every band they ever heard of would have ever bought that music in the first place. When it is so easy it becomes a novelty, people will download discographies of any rubbish because they can. High street music shops tend to only have primarily mainstream stock in circulation and alternative record shops are dying out. It seems the only people that care are making millions and are contemptuous of not making more millions. I believe music is veering towards being free or for a nominal price given to the artists. The music industry needs to stop being so sore and invest in live acts more along with merchandise and artwork that can be sold at concerts because dedicated fans will always want to support the artists they love. If labels developed emerging artists on the grounds that they profit when such a system is set up, they could re-invent the market for themselves instead of whining about "lost CD sales" to a digital generation. So dear multimillion music corporations, buck up your ideas if you want to carry on making money for other peoples artistry, because criminalising a large proportion of your potential market is probably not the best idea.

[tomo123321v4]

At the end of the day, it is stealing..... but people will do it as long as they can get away with it.
Personally i dont see what is wrong with making a copy of a cd and givin it to your mate, but this has become 'mass-scale' and to people you dont even know, back in the 80's and 90's it wasnt uncommon to copy you casset tape or cd to a tape and give it to your friend,buy along the way this has lost its innocence.
The only way to solve this problem is to start making examples of people and coming down hard on anyone that downloads music illegally.

[Stuart90]

Simple solution, stop making and marketing shit manufactured music because people who download that stuff only like it whilst it's in the charts which can last like 3 weeks then they won't listen to it again. So it's a cheap alternative for them. Put out real talent and not tell us what we should like, maybe then people will buy more.

[Thrace]

Bassatron wrote:

"lost £219 million", not necessarily because not everybody who downloaded a discography of every band they ever heard of would have ever bought that music in the first place. When it is so easy it becomes a novelty, people will download discographies of any rubbish because they can. High street music shops tend to only have primarily mainstream stock in circulation and alternative record shops are dying out. It seems the only people that care are making millions and are contemptuous of not making more millions. I believe music is veering towards being free or for a nominal price given to the artists. The music industry needs to stop being so sore and invest in live acts more along with merchandise and artwork that can be sold at concerts because dedicated fans will always want to support the artists they love. If labels developed emerging artists on the grounds that they profit when such a system is set up, they could re-invent the market for themselves instead of whining about "lost CD sales" to a digital generation. So dear multimillion music corporations, buck up your ideas if you want to carry on making money for other peoples artistry, because criminalising a large proportion of your potential market is probably not the best idea.

You're still missing the point that you're stealing something that the artists work really hard to put out.

Bands I imagine do make money from CD's, the amount of bands i've chatted to that now can't make a living anymore because greedy ****ers won't pay for their bloody music is sickening.

[thrashmonkey]

 Scourge441  wrote:

Checked.

Even if piracy hurts album sales, it has enormous potential to increase merchandise sales, which often give bands a much higher profit margin. Shirts sell for $15 and cost about $4 per shirt to print.

this is true. people pay ridiculous prices for merch at concerts, i gladly paid $25 for a blind guardian shirt at the concert i went to.

[zxxAACxxz]

I buy a crap load more band merchandise than CDs. My entire wardrobe is band shirts, and walls are full of the posters. Not only do shirts cost more than the CDs, its also a form of showing your respect and is also a form of advertising. Record labels are just greedy.

[Dave Frenzy]

this is news???

tbh i dont think you can call the current generation talented...

nearly everything i have heard on the TV at the moment is all autotuned. ANYBODY can sing when their voice is put through an autotuner. THAT IS NOT TALLENT!!!

[Nameless742]

£219 million to retailers.
Ain't that much.

[Brian Sastre]

I, for one, do purchase music from my favorite bands in support of them, as well as going to their shows and buying merch from them...Now, new bands that I'm interested in, or heard of from friends, will get downloaded so I can get introduced to them. If they end up being one of those bands that I really love they will get the same support from me. Real music fans, well most, probably do the same thing.

[Kilty Boxers]

Geoff Taylor= UK version of Gene Simmons.

[kfong03]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

LIKE!

[guitarist41]

I dream of music communism. Free music and free gigs. Music is too precious to put a price on.

[Horsedick.MPEG]

Dave Frenzy wrote:

this is news???

tbh i dont think you can call the current generation talented...

nearly everything i have heard on the TV at the moment is all autotuned. ANYBODY can sing when their voice is put through an autotuner. THAT IS NOT TALLENT!!!

You do realize that almost, if not, all of your favorite bands use autotune when they record their voices. It's more common than you think.

[the_white_bunny]

blame the Ipod.

[BrianApocalypse]

"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector," he said.

You're right. This must be stopped. It's the poor record companies all over the world that are missing out. After all, its THEIR divine right to deprive a generation of talented young people.

[Scourge441]

Thrace wrote:

Bassatron wrote:

"lost £219 million", not necessarily because not everybody who downloaded a discography of every band they ever heard of would have ever bought that music in the first place. When it is so easy it becomes a novelty, people will download discographies of any rubbish because they can. High street music shops tend to only have primarily mainstream stock in circulation and alternative record shops are dying out. It seems the only people that care are making millions and are contemptuous of not making more millions. I believe music is veering towards being free or for a nominal price given to the artists. The music industry needs to stop being so sore and invest in live acts more along with merchandise and artwork that can be sold at concerts because dedicated fans will always want to support the artists they love. If labels developed emerging artists on the grounds that they profit when such a system is set up, they could re-invent the market for themselves instead of whining about "lost CD sales" to a digital generation. So dear multimillion music corporations, buck up your ideas if you want to carry on making money for other peoples artistry, because criminalising a large proportion of your potential market is probably not the best idea.

You're still missing the point that you're stealing something that the artists work really hard to put out.

Bands I imagine do make money from CD's, the amount of bands i've chatted to that now can't make a living anymore because greedy ****ers won't pay for their bloody music is sickening.

Unless a band is selling thousands of copies or is independently releasing the album, they're probably not making that much money.

And like I said before, piracy can help sell merchandise. From a business point of view, albums are basically just marketing tools used to sell t-shirts and concert tickets; they're not profitable for the artist anymore.

Shirts, on the other hand, can't be downloaded. You can bootleg shirts, but most of the time they'll be of inferior quality. Likewise with concerts; they can be recorded and spread across the internet, but watching a concert on your computer is a pale imitation of actually being in the venue.

Tell the bands you've chatted to who "can't make a living" that they can survive change their business model. Using piracy to your advantage is much smarter than whining about it.

[almadacr]

Everytime that i read this Bs about downloads it makes me laugh , in the 80`s we diden`t had internet and only was needed was 1 guy buying 1 album and all is friends , girlfriends , school buddies were recording the same album in K7 , remember the walkman ... anyway like GS ( i cant even say the guy`s name ) record companies are gready . Yeah i download a lot of music and i know that a cd only costs 14$ CAD but when i go to a concert between tickets and merchandise its a lot and i go to a lot of concerts per year , so i prefer to give the money to the band than to a greedy corporation from the music industry .

[iplayat11]

Earlier this year, the BPI said music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years.

So according to themselves music sale have grown for the 1st time in 6 years and they claim that illegal downloading will "deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music"

I don't get it.

[HopeForTheWorst]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

This.

[bluntzilla2010]

Anybody that wants to put out albums just to make money can **** right off anyway. I download a ton of stuff but I go to lots of concerts and buy merch every time. I'll gladly support talented bands, I just refuse to support greedy record labels that keep putting out generic artists

[a7xb4d]

Dave Frenzy wrote:

this is news???

tbh i dont think you can call the current generation talented...

nearly everything i have heard on the TV at the moment is all autotuned. ANYBODY can sing when their voice is put through an autotuner. THAT IS NOT TALLENT!!!

+1

It's pretty difficult to find bands that don't have their vocalists autotuned nowadays. I was actually messin with audacity the other day, seeing if I could remove the vocalist from Boys Like Girls' voice out of the music (somethin for my sister) and I put in every possible range of frequencies, and it wouldn't let me take the voice out cause it recognized it as an instrument, not a voice. Terrible.

Anyway, I don't think there's anything wrong with copying your friend's CDs or downloading a track that the band never released, it's just the stuff off the internet is bad cause that is stealing, and no one paid for it.

[gooooog]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

you made my day

[Carlson-online]

they assume a download = a lost sale.

this is not the case, for two reasons.

1) the user wud never have bought the album if they cudnt get it for free
2) some users download them first, then go out and actually buy the CD if it's any good.

Put out good music, and people will buy it. simple.

[flava14]

The biggest problem here is the price of albums, particulary newly released. There are so many albums selling above $30 (AUS), which is just ridiculous for an album. Itunes don't offer much of a cheaper price, even though you aren't physically getting the CD, ambum cover, casing etc. They shouldat least take a few dollars off because all your getting is the digital version, no physical objects.

I also download, much of which to listen to music of a new band that i have discovered. I also do it if i have a school assignment which requires music.

[KGB117]

bands should make money from concerts and merchandise!!! if they're actually good at what they do then they will have no problem gaining popularity and eventually playing huge stadiums... the music should be free. It should only be an advertisement for you band, "this is what we sound like, follow us on facebook, come see us next time we're in town, ps. tell your friends!"

[guusw]

lefthandstrat wrote:

foopeppers wrote:

It is well known that most money from the record sales goes to the men in suits behind the music and not the actual band... the band make their money from touring and merchandise sales. I think a lot of album's are overpriced especially if an artist happens to be dead like say Jimi Hendrix. When you buy a Jimi Hendrix CD hes not recieving anything obviously, and while his family might, it wasnt them who made the music.to quote the article,"It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the burgeoning digital entertainment sector,"I would also argue that if you tune into a mainstream radio station then all you will hear is a load of over produced crap come from no one with any real musical talent or originality. It is no wonder people are no longer prepared to pay for music anymore.

This,

Purely because, aside from the hendrix point (which is all true), the Stuff in the mainstream IS boring, repetitive, nothing special. In a way, and I sort of say it because I do it, if there is a lot of bands who are producing and writing very similar boeing material, then some downloaders will think 'wow that's not even worth paying for' (I would agree with that) hence why so much of it goes on. I mean when you want to buy a CD in store its like 13 or 14 quid for an overcommercialised artist. what's the point? seriously...

Yet there are some perfectly talented, amazing bands out there, who are struggling to make a name for themselves due to the commercial forces that be. If Commercialisation of music stopped existing then we would just get music being produced and bought because people enjoy listening to it and writing/performing it.

I totally agree with this... Also, music shouldn't even be about the money. Musicians not making money would improve the quality of the music so muhc more. then making music would become a thing people want to do because of the fun of it.

[blakeg14]

Don't download any Metallica

[TechnicolorType]

Any true musician would rather have 100,000 people listen to their music for free rather than 1,000 listen to it for a price. The only people that think illegal downloading is a problem is labels and people who enter the music industry for money alone.

[ticklemeemo]

lefthandstrat wrote:

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

How the **** do you download illegally then? It uses the same amount of bandwidth to download illegally as legally.

[4baileyt]

"The amount of people illegally downloading music in the UK has risen to 7.7 million."

"Earlier this year, the BPI said music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years."

so music sales have grown despite more illegal downloading, interesting correltation there. :P

[Slap-happy]

Anything I have "illegally downloaded" and liked I have gone out a bought. Anything I haven't liked has been deleted. I have saved money and bands that I would not have otherwise considered have gained from my purchase.
Try before you buy? Win win situation for all.

[vans1170]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

this is more interesting than the article

[lefthandstrat]

ticklemeemo wrote:

How the **** do you download illegally then? It uses the same amount of bandwidth to download illegally as legally.

because i download lower quality music, so mostlt 128 or 160bits a second... also I download Illegally but it doesn't mean I am constantly downloading. Its normally one album a month...ish. you try living of 3gb of internet...

[stepco12345]

*Checked*

[ticklemeemo]

lefthandstrat wrote:

ticklemeemo wrote:

How the **** do you download illegally then? It uses the same amount of bandwidth to download illegally as legally.

because i download lower quality music, so mostlt 128 or 160bits a second... also I download Illegally but it doesn't mean I am constantly downloading. Its normally one album a month...ish. you try living of 3gb of internet...

First off, that's ridiculous, one album is maybe 60 MB. And that is Itunes quality; not a large file in any case. It would be perfectly feasible to pay for those songs, at what, $10 a month? You're just kidding yourself if you think you're justified in stealing music.
Second, the internet is not a natural right. "Try living on 3 GB a month"? How about try living on no internet whatsoever?
Thirdly, I assume you live in America based on your sense of entitlement, so why not just go to a library and download music there? Go to a Starbucks and use their Wi-Fi? Your argument makes no sense whatsoever.

[waveningkan]

if bands want to earn more,then they should do more concerts/touring.mayb then people would think their cds are worth buying.i'd rather download say the new stonesour album first before buying it,but i'd straight away buy a new mastodon or tool cd without listening to any tracks first.coz mastodon n tool have caught my heart.lol.

[mitchgosche2011]

I buy $20 freaking t-shirts for bands. Those t-shirts probably cost $2.50. I feel like I should be able to get an album for that much. Also, if I didn't download their albums, there's no way in hell I'd buy a t-shirt for them.

[gmoney2748]

iplayat11 wrote:

Earlier this year, the BPI said music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years.


So according to themselves music sale have grown for the 1st time in 6 years and they claim that illegal downloading will "deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music"

I don't get it.

I was wondering if I was the only one that caught that lol

[simmonsalmighty]

Carlson-online wrote:

they assume a download = a lost sale.

this is not the case, for two reasons.

1) the user wud never have bought the album if they cudnt get it for free
2) some users download them first, then go out and actually buy the CD if it's any good.

Put out good music, and people will buy it. simple.

This!

[RequiemofDemons]

Well you can't download a shirt...can't download a real life live concert experience (i mean going to shows not a live dvd), and you can't download the bajillions of other things bands give out like backstage passes, books, a million other pieces of merch. While it is expensive to make cd's (unless you work from home in which case it is still pretty pricey)...a relatively well known band is still going to make a **** ton of money selling these other things at their shows...downloading music on the internet was the best damn thing for promotion since the radio imo

[RockInPeaceDime]

"1.2 billion tracks were illegally obtained this year, at a cost of £219 million to retailers."

I don't follow this logic, and will thus say it is incorrect.

[guitarplaya070]

No one would deny that music is an art.... did Michelangelo charge for people to view the sistine chapel? Although he was commissioned to paint it, the art was there for the world to see. In my opinion if artists want to be paid like titans of industry, they should do so by earning it out on the road through sacrifice and hard work, rather than autotuning and over producing an album on itunes. In my opinion, in many cases, an album is an advertisement for a band.... If i like what they're presenting, I'll go out of my way to make sure I get to a show/buy merch/turn people on to them.

Call me crazy, but I don't think that artists or athletes for that matter deserve more money than any person could possibly spend in a lifetime. When you have people like firemen/police officers/soldiers, how is it justified that someone who happens to be luckier than 99% of the population deserves such money. What I'm saying is that illegal downloading seems to be a way of society finally putting a check on this form of social retardation. I'm not saying that artists and athletes should starve, and I'm not hating on them for making as much money as they do, however, I'm $200,000 in debt from student loans... Music industry is out $9.99 (or, lets face it, probably about $2.00 that it costs to record/produce that one single copy that was taken), which will be made back exponentially by charging me $45 a ticket for admission to any worthwhile show as well as $20-$30 a t-shirt, etc.

With the amount of people illegally downloading, the logical thing for the music industry is to adapt and cater to it as opposed to clinging to the old notion that people should pay for the "privilege" to listen to the music. Bundle merch/tix with free downloads.... Use the downloads to entice people to spend their money. But it's completely unreasonable to expect people to stop the downloading or to pay for the downloads they did take. Sorry for the rant.

[james_dean]

FIGHT THE POWER!!!!!

[a7xf@n43v3r]

illegal music downloading is everywhere now. Do you have any idea how easy it is to illegally download songs off the internet?

[milliorn]

hugh20 wrote:

In other news, a bear has been spotted shitting in a wood.

LOL

[rockfreak611]

Carlson-online wrote:

they assume a download = a lost sale.

this is not the case, for two reasons.

1) the user wud never have bought the album if they cudnt get it for free
2) some users download them first, then go out and actually buy the CD if it's any good.

Put out good music, and people will buy it. simple.

That's my philosophy with this. Especially with youtube - I always check out some songs on the album on youtube before I buy it, but now record compnies are taking away all of the music for potenial buyers to listen to. They're just shooting themselves in the feet. Not to mention it pisses people off who post covers of the songs.

[gallagher2006]

"...at a cost of £219 million to retailers... "

I usually always buy from a bands online shop. It tends to be cheaper, and I know the money would be better gone to the band.

Maybe if HMV weren't charging £15 for a CD...

[wretched25]

everyone has there little solution to the problem, i guess.

[Family Reunion]

So..... what else is new?

[Uber Man]

i bet that probably 90% of those people weren't going to buy it anyway...

[crazysam23_Atax]

How does Mr. Geoff Taylor think legislation is going to stop illegal downloading? I'm quite sure that illegal downloading is illegal. It's thievery. How is legislation going to put a stop to it?

[giveitaname87]

guitarplaya070 wrote:

Call me crazy, but I don't think that artists or athletes for that matter deserve more money than any person could possibly spend in a lifetime. When you have people like firemen/police officers/soldiers, how is it justified that someone who happens to be luckier than 99% of the population deserves such money.

It's simple supply and demand; salaries for any profession are set by the market. It's easy to find and hire teachers and firefighters. It's very difficult to find a guy who can throw a 90-mph fastball. This guy is much more coveted. Similarly, some artists are much more coveted than other artists or other professionals; they are paid according to their market value, which in a free market is set, at least in part, by you and your wants.

[NEScore]

i download everything illegally evernothing has stopped me.

[thebigredjj10]

Alot of people cling to the old ideals of a failing market. 20 years ago, many of these people complained about how they never could find good bands because of all the crap on the radio and mtv, and how labels were a corrupt system and how the whole industry needs a kick in the @$$. Well this is that change.
If it wasn't for the internet I would not have found the artists I have found. I could not imagine how many bands I never would have heard. Bands I would never have bought I cd before (because I had never heard of the genre, let alone the band) I've gone to their shows, paying them more money.
Studio recordings have become a way of advertising for shows. The industry has learned to use Youtube this way, but they complain as they try to squeeze every last penny out of the cd market before it dies (or at least drastically changes).
Professional recordings are normally relatively expensive to produce, and it can be difficult for a new band to come up with the funds. But the software and equipment is getting cheaper, and labels have been notorious for doing half @$$ jobs at providing for bands anyways.
People make it sound like lots of young bands are losing chances. Most bands wouldn't get a chance in the first place because if they don't fit the labels standards they are not signed. Now many good up and coming bands have a new medium for distributing their music.
Concerts and other merch are the 21st century, you can either get on the bus or look like an old geezer to old to grow with the times.

[OMMad]

Aléx wrote:

"at a cost of £219 million to retailers."

Nope. 95% of albums I download I'd never have heard of and thus never have even considered buying if I hadn't downloaded them, so they're really not losing anything.

haha. this is actually one of the reasons why downloading music is so controversial. it's kind of difficult to make any claim of how much damage piracy of an IP does -- mostly because a file on your hard drive isn't really WORTH anything. a physical CD on the other hand costs money to press, design, distribute, package, blah blah blah.

[oc616]

Alright I'll say it seing as no one else has...this makes it more difficult for new talent to get a shot in the biz as they say. I work for HMV and whilst I can't say its NOT an organisation trying to profit, let me tell you that for what we buy say a £9.99 CD at, we make PENNIES if that...the ones that really rip you off aren't the labels, its distributors, the warehouses that send out the physical items all over the globe (we even had an argument with these because they demanded too high a price and thus withheld on ordering stock about september time). But also this affects the chances for artists getting ANY chance of being signed and getting to a greater stage, I'm also a recording artist and I do put my stuff up for free download because I don't think its worth paying for, but taking it from an artist i love (which many do) means I'm taking their property REGARDLESS of money. Without the revenue going into your fave Metal bands etc the industry will pump more money into Lady Gaga clones in order to get SOME return on their investment and will take LESS chances on bands/artists that make you tick. Also just to prove im not a industry worshipping tyrant, I have previously downloaded illegally...then i met Devin Townsend...enough said haha!

[henkka_potku]

lefthandstrat wrote:

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

Why?

I do it because i can't normally get hold of what I am after on CD, I go to a retailer and get the same BS over and over 'we can't get it/it's our of production' so then i try Internet sources such as Amazon and Ebay and the direct HMV website. to find that HMV have said the same as the record shops, Ebay is on a bid system at some stupid price and some idiot on Amazon is trying to sell a 6GBP CD for about 30GBP which I am not prepared to pay for a CD when the Vendor selling it is just profetering.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

I sometimes also Illegally download so i can listen to artists which are 'New' to me, then If I like that artist, I again delete the downloaded material and purchase A few Albums.

So yes, I agree that Downloading Illegally is a problem and understand the viewpoints from the industry, However, If Illegal downloading didn't exist then, in some respects, bands would have one less form of Indirect promotion.

lol moralfag what's the point of deleting illegally acquired files if you own the cd? I have dozens of cd's and I haven't ripped them, instead I have downloaded them from the internet.

[dark_arts]

If it were me as the band, I'd seriously stop bitching about illegal downloading. I'd put my stuff up on my website for free, and still sell CDs, you wanna buy CD (and get a fancy booklet), good, you don't, that's cool too (i'll provide a .PDF file for you).

Screw the hogging labels. I can still make money from selling my T-shirts & doing shows instead.

[Jasonbts]

People are just lazy. We need more sites like Guvera with free LEGAL downloads, that still allow the artists to get paid for their work. If they made a site like that where you maybe watch an ad then get a torrent file to get an album, that would work, and I think people would go for it because they'd know that it's legit and free and legal, and there's a guarantee of no BS torrents.

I also think that since musicians make more money from shows and the record companies take their cut from record sales, it would be smart for artists to record new material live, and release new albums from those live recordings. That way, they get their money from playing the shows, and the record company gets theirs from the sales of that album. Musicians can spend months in the studio making no money at all and then when the album comes out, they still get nothing, making them desperate too tour, which makes for a crappy show.

[Jasonbts]

dark_arts wrote:

If it were me as the band, I'd seriously stop bitching about illegal downloading. I'd put my stuff up on my website for free, and still sell CDs, you wanna buy CD (and get a fancy booklet), good, you don't, that's cool too (i'll provide a .PDF file for you).

Screw the hogging labels. I can still make money from selling my T-shirts & doing shows instead.

Yeah, but you won't have any record company backing you to get you out on the road for shows that will earn you a decent living.

[Gerbos]

http://newmusicstrategies.com/2008/04/03/should-i-be-worried -about-piracy/

I give this link to the BPI.

[rajandmaria]

wake up...we´re in a friggin crisis. maybe if they sold cds for 3 to 4 euros this wouldnt happen....the world is about to change.....this crisis will change the worrrlllld

[rajandmaria]

..and another thing.....i know importers of blank cds....the cost is 0,05c a cd!!!!!..ok the artist have to make money. but lets be real....they were making millions....NOT anymore....its all gonna change

[Skuzzmo]

rajandmaria wrote:

wake up...we´re in a friggin crisis. maybe if they sold cds for 3 to 4 euros this wouldnt happen....the world is about to change.....this crisis will change the worrrlllld

Tell us more....

[drawnacrol]

To combat these lack of CD sales they are raising CDs to 40 pound each, that will work, right???? If Cds were 4-5 euro each I would buy 5 a week, now I've to pay 20-25 euro for an album that might not even be any good so this is where try before you buy comes in.

[slashrock94]

I would rather be listened to without making money than not be listened to at all.

[lefthandstrat]

ticklemeemo wrote:

lefthandstrat wrote:ticklemeemo wrote:How the **** do you download illegally then? It uses the same amount of bandwidth to download illegally as legally.because i download lower quality music, so mostlt 128 or 160bits a second... also I download Illegally but it doesn't mean I am constantly downloading. Its normally one album a month...ish. you try living of 3gb of internet...First off, that's ridiculous, one album is maybe 60 MB. And that is Itunes quality; not a large file in any case. It would be perfectly feasible to pay for those songs, at what, $10 a month? You're just kidding yourself if you think you're justified in stealing music.Second, the internet is not a natural right. "Try living on 3 GB a month"? How about try living on no internet whatsoever?Thirdly, I assume you live in America based on your sense of entitlement, so why not just go to a library and download music there? Go to a Starbucks and use their Wi-Fi? Your argument makes no sense whatsoever.

I live in the United Kingdom.... hence mentioning GBP (Great British Pounds, otherwise known as Pounds Sterling) in my posts. Yeah I could pay couldn't I, Not my fault that my job is on a casual basis working for a football team on bar service and my wages are c*** if I am honest. Saving ten GBP or 20 GBP by downloading illegally as a temproary measure allows me to focus on MY music career by buying the gear I need to survive.

also remember, Europe is sortof in an economical mess.

[DavidBenyamin]

at a cost of £219 million to retailers.

FFS, how many do we download that we will NEVER buy? Most of the downloads are for "checking" out an album, like we used to do in the cd stores years ago. The amount of downloads do not equel the loss in sales.

[Guano23]

If your want to be in a band you play out to make money not sit on your ass at home and wait for people to buy your albums. Music is ment to be heard live anyway. "Pirate" away I say. Most people I know that "pirate" music are downloading thier favorite songs not entire ablums of music. I dotn hear bands crying about this just the labels so its pretty obvious who its hurting.

[drsativa]

they say illegal downloads in the uk are growing. But they also say that music sales tax revenue was up for the first time in six years. So whats there problem? People are obviously just downloading stuff that theyd never buy anyway.

When i was a kid we were always swapping LPs to tape copies of. They used to say 'home tasping is killing music' That was 30 years ago. I believe music is still alive, is it not?

[drivermod]

Bands should make their money off touring and merch.

[Martyfan]

Who gives a shit? The record labels don't even sign talented artists any more so who's losing out? The big fat executives who want to make money by exploiting people? Oh no! How sad Humour aside, I do make a point of buying CD's from more obscure bands because I'm fairly sure most of the money will actually go to the band.

[SEAMUSS]

Internet has created an opportunity for anyone to create and share music, many do but it needs to be on a larger scale, with big name bands participating. If enough big name bands do this, or if a band becomes popular on a national scale doing this it could create a musical revolution, though gigs couldn't be free. This could kill some of the music industry including record stores, and create a bunch of talentless bands who think they are good, and shove their music on everybody, but both of these problems could be solved over time.

[AliPolyamorousC]

lefthandstrat wrote:

I Am one of these people who illegally downloads.

Why?

I do it because i can't normally get hold of what I am after on CD, I go to a retailer and get the same BS over and over 'we can't get it/it's our of production' so then i try Internet sources such as Amazon and Ebay and the direct HMV website. to find that HMV have said the same as the record shops, Ebay is on a bid system at some stupid price and some idiot on Amazon is trying to sell a 6GBP CD for about 30GBP which I am not prepared to pay for a CD when the Vendor selling it is just profetering.

HOWEVER, I do follow this policy with Downloading. If i download an album and I happen to buy it on CD, I Delete the downloaded files from My Computer, Ipod etc, then I use the CD instead. I would use Itunes but again, this is a nightmare for me due to having a limited bandwidth at this moment in time.

I sometimes also Illegally download so i can listen to artists which are 'New' to me, then If I like that artist, I again delete the downloaded material and purchase A few Albums.

So yes, I agree that Downloading Illegally is a problem and understand the viewpoints from the industry, However, If Illegal downloading didn't exist then, in some respects, bands would have one less form of Indirect promotion.

Couldnt agree more.

[ilovesyu]

To be honest it's great to hear this because that means its become more about the music rather than music sales and imaging. I listen to music from all over the world and some cd's would cost me over $100 to import and thats just for 1 cd. I shouldn't have to pay money like that to hear other people's creative statements. I will fight till the day I die to keep music free for the most part. Most musicians don't really care about the money they play a show everyday because it's their dream and they want to affect us with it, I am the same way. There is no reason to be paying over $10 for a cd when no one really uses them anymore. and paying 99 cents or more per song is too much too a lot of us fans dont have the kind of money to constantly buy all of our favorite arists music. There are other ways to make a living out of music, but punishing people for downloading their favorite music to listen to is not the way to go, it just makes people hate them.