Somebody must have convinced the RIAA that untold riches will come their way once Digital Rights Management controls are in place. However Digital Rights Management (DRM) will not help anyone. Like many of us, the recording industry works in a world where technological change is the norm. When they claim that their revenue has been affected by illegal copying they are correct. Today it is too easy to make counterfeit copies of recordings on a large scale. It is up tothe consumer to watch for these fakes, and report them to the authorities. Purchasing a pirated recording is not a bargain. However, the recording industry gains more than it loses when a friend gives a copy of CD to a friend, if it introduces the person to a new musical experience. Also, there is, was, and always will be parasites who never pay for anything if they can help it. They will never be a customer anyway, therefore nothing can be lost or gained by them. No Longer A Dominant Player The recording industry refuses to acknowledge that it is no longer in the position of a dominant player and is now one of many competing for Once upon a time our television reception was free, with the use of a roof antenna or rabbit ears, we were happy with the up to to ten station universe. Compare that to what we spend on basic cable, now toss in the cost of a digital box. Movie rentals. Another drain on the entertainment budget. Two or three movies a week and you could have spent enough for a new CD. Magazines. Can you believe the number of magazines there are today? The big box book book stores display ten to twenty times the number of magazines that the little book store did back in the old days. Come to think of it, the big box book stores were not around in the old days either. Professional Sports. There are more professional sporting events than there ever was. More teams, playing much longer seasons, and there are new sports out there as well. The Internet. How much are you spending per month for your Internet? How many CD's would that buy? Not only that, how much did you spend on hardware in the last ten years? If you are reading this you probably have decided that you have paid enough for software. Other Factors Tape Formats. We cannot blame the woes of the recording industry entirely on alternative spending of our disposable income. I lived through the change of tape formats from eight track tapes to compact cassettes and many of us got burned when the eight track tape format went to the dustbin. When the Compact Disk format was announced many of us stopped buying music when CD's came out. Some of us waited for the price of CD players to come down, and we waited to see if the CD would be as short lived as the eight track cassette. However, the record purchasing habit was interrupted. The Times Really Were A Changin. At the same time that we were waiting to see what would happen to the recording formats, the biggest most affluent generation of them all, was starting a new generation of their own. Hence, a new list of priorities and record purchases not very high on the list. To make matters worse, there was the short period where we experienced extremely high interest rates. Those who did not lose their home, were struggling to keep it. Again, this would be something that would reduce the number of trips to the record store. Loss of Control. This may be the real reason why the big money in the industry wants DRM. Anybody can be a recording artist today, all it takes is a few thousand dollars (this price is falling monthly) and anyone can have a very professional recording studio. The barrier to entry is next to zero. This means that the big record labels are no longer the masters and the gatekeepers. The last four CDs that I have purchased were made directly from the artists. Two were purchased from Brian "Licorice" Locking (former bass player for the Shadows), one CD by Searson, a Canadian Celtic music group and the most recent one was from Bill Bonney called Rock-Ola. This is the most important point because it proves that the music industry can survive without DRM. Moreover, where do independent artists fit in, with someone else controlling what can or cannot be played on a CD/DVD player or computer. |
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