I know so many people who would download loads of music for free, but still buy the stuff they liked (usually discovered from their own or other people’s free downloads). Now those same people listen to Spotify and feel that they have paid the artists, so no longer feel the need to buy the songs they like.
Comment on Artists, Please! Don’t Put Spotify Play Buttons On Your Site…
Additional info: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?
We’re always bombarded with news at how the music (and movies, and everything else) industry is losing money to piracy, even though we keep hearing all these facts about how Glee has had more songs charted than The Beatles.
When Sarah, from the Music Production Schools’ design team, emailed me this infographic depicting all these facts onto one place… is hard not to share, right?
I won’t lie to you, the numbers are good — though I really don’t know how that works with adjusted inflation — but the numbers also make me sad. To imagine Katy Perry standing on similar ground as MJ or Flo Rida standing on similar ground to The Beatles… or Ke$ha selling MORE than The Beatles. It’s depressing.
Mainly because there are MUCH better artists out there, and half the world haven’t even heard about them. I think it’s a crime that everyone knows Katy Perry, but it’d be rare if someone knows who Shiina Ringo is.
In any case, this is an infographic about sales~ so there you have it.
Full infographic after the break~
I don’t want to say it’s a sad SAD day, because I’m pretty sure there are so many worse things going on in the world right now, but I was pretty shocked to find this one out after my ISP was wonky and wouldn’t let me on Facebook and Twitter. I seriously could only use Google-based websites and the Chinese ones.
Anyway, Megaupload is dead. Or at least, dead for the moment. I wonder what people that had paid for premium accounts and had loads of files stored are going to do. It’s like… their lives are gone. PUFF! That’s it. I hope they have physical copies or other backup uploads.
Could you imagine the repercussions for all those file upload systems? So uploading your iTunes backups to dropbox would be ilegal, cloud systems wouldn’t really be possible, right?
And what about all those Blogger sites, WordPress and other websites that dedicate to it. Does it mean that all those sites are getting axed next?
Anyway, it always happens this way. A site gets shut down, it gets bought, or something happens to it. There’s people outcry, and we move on to the next thing.
Hi, guys!
YAM011 is almost done. The Lima Film Fest ends tonight, so I’ll be closing the issue — hopefully on time, for a release on the 15th at 00.00hr. My timezone, not yours. GMT -5, FYI.
While I was writing the editor’s note — and addressing everyone on the Facebook group — I wondered what to call YAM readers. I thought YAMMIES would be nice, but then the Urban Dictionary told me those are tits/knockers. But then again, Penn & Teller said that pretty much any noun in plural can mean knockers. LOL Watermelons, lemons, air bags. There you go, wouldn’t be much of a difference.
So… then I thought about YAMMERS, but that can’t be good, right? So maybe YAMMIES is fine. Sounds a bit like “jammies” because you know… I’m a Spanish speaker. To me, the sound of a Y with a vowel, and the sound of a J with a vowel is the same. When I first moved to Canada, Yellow and Jello were the same to me. Well, I still can’t get it right. Frak.
Anyway, it’s getting late. I just wanted to post the streams to some of the albums we are reviewing and rating in the new edition of YAM. Not all, but most of them~ Thank you, Xiami ;P
* denotes that they have a written review.
Anyway, happy listening! Off to zzzz. Busy day today.
Hi, China! You rock.
Right next to Haoting.com, there’s Xiami.com – whose name makes little sense to me… apparently it means Dried Shrimps. Huh, right? xD Anyway, seems like it has a pretty collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Western music…
No region restrictions!
Highlights? Which we reviewed and rated on the latest YAM~~~
Just hit the PLAY button there.
Also, big info!
Bibi’s soon-to-be released i.Light.Fish album contains a song written by Diane Warren. *Excited*
I have been enjoying this for a little more than a week.
just spent $35 USD on the limited edition… just to proof that you pay for the goods.
so stop complaining music and movie industry. just make good stuff happen.
In an effort to attract more Western musicians and firms, China is building three national music industry parks, serving as performance stages and platforms where musicians from around the world could get together to collaborate, located in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
But of course, in order to attract Western musicians and firms, they need to tackle piracy.
With programs like the ones 88TC88.com [musicdish.com] are offering for Western acts to get packages translated into Chinese to enter the market, the government is trying to develop a system that will not only help artists get their royalties, but also protect Chinese arts.
Until relatively recently, copyright in China was illegal. All intellectual property belonged to the people, ie. government. If you wrote a book for example, the government would ‘own’ it and reap any ‘profits,’ while providing the author with a salary, housing, medical and education. So when some rant on about piracy or the lack of enforcement, this should be put in context. The Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China was adopted in 1990 – we in the US on the other hand have had a Copyright Act on the books since 1790 and we still can’t seem to get it right!
On the other hand, the government does often seem capricious in its enforcement of copyright. They like to point to last year’s shutdown of 200 pirate movie sites, including the largest video BitTorrent site. It just so happens though that the crackdown coincided oh so nicely with the launch of CCTV’s major online video initiative. Nor is it clears whether the shutdown didn’t have more to do with fighting pornography – a much bigger taboo for the government – rather than piracy. Having said that though, the fact is that for both economic and diplomatic/political reasons, the Chinese government will increasingly get serious, get tough and tackle the IP issue in the broad sense, not just piracy.
What’s gonna be their system?
The Chinese government will use watermarking technology to embed a unique code into every creative works released – music, film, graphic,… – allowing the government to easily identify, fine and shut down websites peddling pirated material as well as track all plays for royalty collection and disbursement.
all via MusicDish.
Which is already happening when you upload things on YouTube or some file sharing website. Things get deleted, and accounts get shut down. However, coming from China. This is huge.
Look, I am all for China protecting its artists, as long as me as a user NOT in China, is able to have access to their content. I listen to a lot of music in Chinese, which I wouldn’t be doing if it weren’t for illegal downloads in the first place. I wouldn’t own albums by LeeHom Wang, or all of Bibi’s discography if I hadn’t downloaded their albums.
I wouldn’t know about Yuguo or Chang Shilei or Milk @ Coffee.
You know, I use Haoting to stream music now, but some of the artists I just named don’t even show up there. Also, you guys… it would be really awesome if there was an option for language. LOL
Okay, having said that~ I know I support downloads, but I also support paying for the stuff YOU consider to be good. I am not telling you what you should pay for, but I want you to make a conscious decision about paying for the content you deem good enough for your money. If you think such star or group is the best, and that they/he/she deserves your money, make an effort to buy anything by them. It doesn’t have to be the $30 USD import album, it can be the $15 USD poster.
Please, do not tell me this album by this artist is the best of all time, if you haven’t paid for it. If you love it that much, you should buy it… unless it’s already out of print, of course. Don’t tell me this movie is a film that changed your life, if you have it as a pirated copy. You don’t have to have a 100 disc collection, but if you really think that piece of art… being anything from music, to movies or photographs or sculptures… if they made a difference to you, please buy it.
The Hollywood Reporter has a piece on how Voltage Pictures is uniting with the US Copyright Group to sue individuals that have downloaded movies via BitTorrent, one of those films? The Hurt Locker…
The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive. The producers of the Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker” are preparing a massive lawsuit against thousands of individuals who pirated the film online. The case could be filed as soon as Wednesday.
Voltage Pictures, the banner behind the best picture winner, has signed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, the Washington D.C.-based venture that, as first reported in March, has begun a litigation campaign targeting tens of thousands of BitTorrent users.
We have heard this before when the music industry try to do it, right?
On this blog, we keep on bringing “distribution” up, because we keep on watching and listening to stuff we can’t get locally. How on earth would I be a Yu Aoi fan if I hadn’t download All About Lily Chou Chou illegally? Same goes for Shunji Iwai, and Salyu…
How could I have ended up owning all the studio albums by the Dixie Chicks, if I hadn’t downloaded Without You from Napster more than a decade ago?
And yes, I may not buy as much as I used to when I was a teenager, but that’s only because I buy pricier items and I’m more exigent with what I want. Dude, I just made a $50USD pre-order from Japan… for ONE ITEM. Without counting the 9 films I just bought from a second-hand store. Sucks to be you, but really…
How do you want me to feel happy spending my dollars in a product sponsored by someone I don’t like? As good as the product can be, I’m not letting my money get into your pockets that easily. And that producer from The Hurt Locker is just making it easier to feel less guilty over not paying for his film.
Hi Nicholas, please feel free to leave your house open every time you go out and please tell your family to do so, please invite people in the streets to come in and take things from you, not to make money out of it by reselling it but just to use it for themselves and help themselves. If you think it’s normal they take my work for free, I’m sure you will give away all your furniture and possessions and your family will do the same. I can also send you my bank account information since apparently you work for free and your family too so since you have so much money you should give it away… I actually like to pay my employees, my family, my bank for their work and like to get paid for my work. I’m glad you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you’re doing that very well. And please do not download, rent, or pay for my movies, I actually like smart and more important HONEST people to watch my films.
via Cinematical.
Once again, I take the time to highlight the fact that you may not be losing your money to the people who download the most, because it is very likely they are the ones that buy the most DVDs, albums, or pay for a digital copy when it is finally available. However, you are losing money if the people are watching your film from the pirated copy that someone has sold them.
As much as you’d like to fit your car-lending to a stranger metaphor , it isn’t quite like that. Toyota can’t tell whether me or not I can lend my car to my cousin, or that I can’t borrow his Nissan for a spin. Sadly, Social media has established that you do not need to be close to call someone a “friend”. Hence, all people borrowing and lending from each other online wouldn’t really be just “people in the street”, but just friends doing what friends have done since they have been able to copy stuff from one source to the other.
As a person working with design and art, I do understand the concerns. I don’t mind if people save one of my photographs in their hard disks or print them, however, I would mind if someone took my photograph, uploaded it somewhere else and said that they’re selling photographs.
Anyway, I leave you with the reasons Why Peter Serafinowicz Steals Movies… Even One He’s In.
People are saying it’s time that LimeWire is put to sleep…
or most likely…
According to the article, 60% of people use LimeWire. Really?
I haven’t used LimeWire in… at least, 8 years? I do know about two or three that use it, but that’s because they pretty much suck with anything related to computers. And I mean really suck.
I have recently used aMule because I needed to get three albums (of an artist… Ding Wei, if you must know), and the only place I found it was on this Chinese website that only supported aMule/eDonkey files. However, I haven’t used it for anything else.
After Napster — does ANYONE use that for legal downloads anyway? — I went through a lot of other programs, including AudioGalaxy, iMesh, Kazaa, eDonkey, LimeWire… and maybe a few others, but the lines have started to blur already.
What I have been doing for music? I have been listening to a LOT of stream music over at HaoTing.com [literally meaning “good music” or “good sound” or “pleasant to hear”], and whenever I decide the album is quite good, I download via any place. Those MP3s sit on my HD for a while until I finally add them on my iPod, and once they become my favorite “albums” [hint: albums, not single tracks], I look them up in different online stores, and actually buy the physical album.
The last album that has defy that system was Salyu’s Maiden Voyage, which I pre-order for fear of losing my copy of the limited edition with DVD concert… like I lost Seo Taiji.
Fight illegal downloads, and be cool!
via Wildgrounds.
Yes, yet another downloads, distribution and torrents post. Why? Because it is important to discuss this issue as many many cases of people who download are brought to court.
It is important to point out the different types of uploaders/downloaders. First, the uploaders — there are those who upload to share and spread their interest so they find someone they can share a common interest with. Someone to talk to about this piece. However, they are often confused with the people who upload to get hits and possibly ad revenue… meaning, making a profit.
This is why so many fansubbing groups are against streaming, many streamers (unless they are authorized) upload videos that don’t belong to them (they don’t even sub stuff themselves!), since streaming is easier than download they get more hits and become more popular from other people’s work.
