Comments on: Working past Internet file-sharing frustration

Intent MediaWorks CEO Lee Ottolenghi says the more consumers learn about file sharing, they less willing they are to pay for content.

[thouben]

New business opportunities??

So as consumers do not want to pay for content, what exactly are these new business opportunities?
What exactly will they want to pay for if not for the content????

[bbotzong]

Are you SERIOUS?

"The entertainment industry is all about change"??? Uh, no they're not. They don't just want your change, they want all your money. Seriously, it took forever for them to come into the 21st century. They did everything they could to resist change. They were fat, dumb and happy charging $15 for a CD of dubious worth.

File sharing forced the music industry to change after the horse was out of the barn. They were dragged kicking and screaming and have resisted competition in every sense and in every way.

When CDs were first introduced, we (the gullible consumers) were told that the price would quickly drop. Cassette tapes were selling for about 60% of the cost of a CD and the industry promised once production capacity was increased that the price would fall dramatically. Well, guess what? Prices of CDs continue to rise.

What the industry needs is true competition. Let no music label have a monopoly on any one artist. Let the artist license their wares to any number of distribution networks. Give the consumers a choice and let competition drive out the inefficient distributors. There is a HUGE market out there for people willing to pay a FAIR PRICE for their music. ALLOFMP3.com is living proof. When you have content at reasonable prices, reliable distribution, good quality, you'll have a huge PAYING customer base.

If you have record companies (read SONY) purposefully installing rootkits on home computers that compromise security and control of your own computer, or burden you with draconian DRM systems like Apple where you can't play the songs you purchase on other devices, then you get consumers who will circumvent these evil systems.

And by-the-way, doesn?t Sony sell CD burners and sell CD blanks and sell programs to help copy CDs? And what about the ?tax? collected on the sale of every CD blank? Where is THAT money going? Why haven?t the people who collect that money distribute it to the artists??

No, sorry. Change is not what the entertainment industry is all about. Its about protecting their fat profits at the expense of their customers.

[jimothyGator]

AllOfMP3

While I agree with most of what you've said, I'd hardly cite
ALLOfMP3 as an example of people paying a fair price.

[lonbroe]

re: Are you Serious?

Thank you for your excellent comment. I wish people would realize it isn't always about money even though we are constantly brainwashed to think that it is. One question for artists and the entertainment industry to ponder - What if people made music and nobody listened, or rather nobody could afford to listen? This will never happen, of course, because if someone else did not make music for us, we would make music for ourselves. Oh my, wouldn't THAT be terrible? As long as we are breathing and have a heart that's beating, we will hear music and listen.
From a musician who hears music sans headphones.

[henebry]

Why would someone download an ad-laden music file?

Why would someone download an ad-laden music file -- when the
same file is available in a pirated version on the same file-sharing
system?

Sorry, but this vision of a way forward doesn't seem plausible to
me.

[anomalator]

I totally agree!

There's no way I would pay for content that came with advertising. Aren't we subjected to enough damn advertising as it is!?

This just goes to show how out-of-touch these entertainment execs are, they think it sounds like a great idea, and the consumer will say "Are you serious?".

I don't want target marketing in my face every time I want to play a music or movie file. I'm all for paying for the content I want, but this kind of tactic would make me seriously consider obtaining it through other means. Let the entertainment industry ponder that for a while.

[mhurwicz]

ads can be separate

The ads don't have to be part of the music. They could play while the song or video downloads.

Music companies could continue to market their products pretty much as they do, by pushing their bands out into the public eye. But the payoff comes in the ads purchased that accompany the download.

And, of course, they can make money by selling the brand of the group on t-shirts or backpacks to shoes or whatever.

CNN does it already when they play an ad before a video news story.

[skeptik]

why indeed?

"Why would anyone want to return to a linear distribution system that requires more effort, more money and more limitations?"

The thing is the industry is not bound by these constraints. They've chosen to stick with them. They could very easily eliminate the effort and the limitations, set a more reasonable price and most consumers would go legit. (The ones who still chose free/illegal means were never your customers to begin with and are only taking the content because they can get it for free. Those do NOT represent lost sales.) iTunes is a perfect example. They opened up in the heyday of P2P and still people bought from them - made them the #1 seller. Why would people pay for content they could have gotten for free? Because the convenience of clean, properly labeled files free of viruses etc has value. Many people are even willing to pay $.99 per song.
The industry's complete failure comes in that they refuse to make it easy on the consumer by adopting transparent models. Instead we're confronted by a confusing array of formats. (Will songs from here play on my player? Will they play on the player I bought my kid? Will I have to stick with this brand of player forever or lose my entire collection?)
On top of that we have the very deliberate restrictions that mean to have a song on our iPod, cell phone and other misc devices we may be forced to buy THE SAME SONG 2 or 3 times. How anybody could expect the consumers to adopt that philosophy is beyond me.
In other words, the industry's DRM is the reason for their low adoption rate. It doesn't prevent piracy at all, but it cripples the paying customers. My 7 year old could understand why this model is unappealing, why can't so-called intelligent RIAA execs? It's the nasty greed virus which seems to cloud the common sense lobe of the brain.

[jimothyGator]

Because...

...Mr. Ottolenghi company develops technology that allows them to
do so, of course! Sadly, he's clearly out of touch with reality and
what consumers really want. iTunes was popular for about a
minute? It's been one long, profitable minute for Apple

[Maccess]

Everyone listens to ad-laden music - it's called Radio

New business models need to evolve. The ads don't have to be in the music, they can be on an iPod's display, or shown on your music player, or in the form of corporate sponsorships of music.

Or we could move away from the ad-model itself.

A band in China encourages people to share .mp3s of their music...and makes money with concerts and merchandising.

[jessekanner]

Get your facts right!

I can't believe CNET is running a story with a reference to the now
de-bunked Forrester report on soft iTunes traffic! Guys, get your
house in order. iTunes is doing GREAT. In fact, the URL this story
references itself descirbes that the gloom was mis-reported.

"Gloomy iTunes predictions premature"

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6143555.html

[protagonistic]

RE: Working past Internet file-sharing frustration

Does this guy have a clue? To begin with he cites the Forester
report which even they have essentially said is almost
meaningless. On top of that, Apple just had one of their biggest
earnings quarter ever. And they did this by selling huge
numbers of iPods. Then he seems to be implying that the
average consumer is a crook.

As for file sharing, I still believe most people are honest and will
pay for their music. The reason the RIAA is having problems with
revenue dropping is not so much piracy, that has been with us
as long as we have had magnetic media. People used to pass
their records around to friends to record on their reel to reel
machines. It is no different today.

Most people in this country are still on dialup so downloading
music is very time consuming for them. The real reason we have
rampant piracy is because the RIAA has kept the price of buying
music so high. Most people are smart enough to realize when
they are being ripped off and make no mistake about it, the
RIAA is ripping people off big time.

Of course the RIAA is boing to lay the blame for falling revenues
on piracy. They can't accept that the real reason just might be
that it is not piracy, but people getting fed up with their heavy
handed tactics and are just buying fewer CD's.

I know I don't buy CD's that are put out by the RIAA these days.
There are lots of legal alternatives out there. Sure, I might not be
buying the latest, greatest artist being blessed by the RIAA, but
then their tastes rarely coincide with mine anyway. Some of the
music I collect is free and some of it I pay for.

Are you listening RIAA? It isn't that piracy is much different than
it was in the days of the LP, it is just that people are getting fed
up with you pushing an overpriced product. You want a
monopoly, well the RIAA is more of a monopoly than MS ever
was.

[jimothyGator]

AllOfMP3

The fault in the model is obvious: Neither the record labels nor the
artists are receiving much (if any) money. AllOfMP3 claims they pay
the artists, but the artists say otherwise.

RIAA and the labels could learn from AllOfMP3, but what they are
doing is certainly not "fair" to the copyright holders and artists.

[jevenew]

Working past Internet file-sharing frustration

The concept is great, until you come across a personal computer like I cleaned up yesterday for a client. Until you can find a way to keep the malware and other nasties off the internet, prudent internet users are going to avoid P2P like the plague.

[zanzzz]

Who's Frustrated?

Computer illiterates may be frustrated while attempting copyright infringement but experienced users encounter few problems. Selecting encryption, using PeerGuardian, and basic safety practices such as using a firewall, anti virus/anti spyware and sweeping downloads before opening will keep you in good stead.
I really cracked up over the line: "The entertainment industry is all about change". The only change they are all about is getting every last bit of it away from their customers. Perhaps that is why they are losing so many.