Comments on: Why I Will Not (Currently) Pay to Download Music

By: Chase

Chase — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:03:05 +0000

Dr. Howell, I especially enjoyed your insight pertaining to the loss of a tangible product when albums are ‘purchased’ electronically. The consumer today is duped into sacrificing the ability to resell without merit. It amazes me that bands like Metallica and over produced rap artists still have the audacity to whine about pirated music, this is basically what comes to mind…

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3522ad043c/piracy-psa-with-christopher-mintzplasse-from-notms-judd-apatow-and-chrismintzplasse

By: rjhowell

rjhowell — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:21:08 +0000

“Rapidshare is the new radio.”

That’s very close to my way of thinking. I remember as a kid taping stuff off the radio and making mix tapes from it, and I would buy the albums (once my allowance allowed) if I liked the stuff enough. Same goes now.

By: rjhowell

rjhowell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:07:06 +0000

Thanks for directing me to your post, Lee. I’ll check it out.
I don’t know about feeling cheated if I don’t pay less for more, but I certainly feel cheated when I’m paying the same for less! Especially when I know it is costing less to produce!

By: rjhowell

rjhowell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:04:56 +0000

Hi Colin,
No, I’m not suggesting anything of the sort. All I said was that it had to be cheaper to offer a download than it was to offer a cd. Surely that’s right.
I don’t know the industry numbers, but distribution and physical production costs are surely less for the purely digital format.
I do know something about how much it costs to make a record, and while it varies, of course, that amount divided by typical sales figures is really rather low. For most albums, for example, it’s nowhere near a dollar an album.
My post, again, doesn’t defend piracy–though morally monstrous seems a little extreme. I don’t think shoplifting is morally monstrous, and piracy is nowhere near as objectionable as that.

By: Lee Hoffman

Lee Hoffman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:54:23 +0000

You’re making some really key points about the value proposition of legal music, particularly about paying comparable prices today for less product then we used to receive in the past. I would even extend your argument to say that over time people generally tend to feel cheated when they aren’t consistently paying less for more.

I wrote some thoughts on the blog earlier today (http://www.squawkingtech.com/2009/01/why-people-dont-believe-in-paying-for-music-hint-its-all-about-deflation/) about why this is actually part of a potentially much larger trend.

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:52:30 +0000

Are you suggesting that the main thing for which one pays when one purchases a record is simply the physical record’s production costs? What about the costs which go into actually making the record? It’s very difficult to divorce this sort of discussion from the economic realities of the industry. Frankly, I think it’s more honest to admit that what we do is morally monstrous and that we simply don’t care. I think we can allow ourselves such indulgences; hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue.