Some people say the prices need to be as they are because of illegal downloading, but surely if prices were lowered a bit than more people would purchase legally and the record companies would make up the money? We've seen the wonders that lowering the price of a song to 79p/59p on iTunes can do, just look at Christina Perri..

 

It's like the chicken and the egg..... Reduce prices slightly and more people are going to buy but leave them as they are to account for ilegal downloads and fewer people will buy them. It's a pity that I-tunes and co don't have the guts to reduce their prices to see how this concept works....

 

Going back to the argument of some people saying they can't afford everything they want. That's life! In the days before downloads what would you have done?? Gone into a shop and lifted it up and walked back out without paying? I doubt that would have been accepted as an excuse by the shop owner....

If the price of singles reduces any further the album will pretty much be killed off as they'd become far too expensive.

Going back to the argument of some people saying they can't afford everything they want. That's life! In the days before downloads what would you have done?? Gone into a shop and lifted it up and walked back out without paying? I doubt that would have been accepted as an excuse by the shop owner....

Well when I was younger and couldn't afford music, it was taping off the radio onto blank cassettes. I'm sure every generation has had their own way of obtaining the music they want for free.

I download legally unless the song isn't available to download or I want a demo. Or it's an iTunes "album only" track. IMO the record company deserve it it that case.

Well when I was younger and couldn't afford music, it was taping off the radio onto blank cassettes. I'm sure every generation has had their own way of obtaining the music they want for free.

 

Of course it was! Mind you the ilegal downloads don't have Dave Lee Travis or Gary Davies talking all over the beginning and end...... :lol:

Of course it was! Mind you the ilegal downloads don't have Dave Lee Travis or Gary Davies talking all over the beginning and end...... :lol:

Alot of them do actually. Damn radio rips. :lol:

Of course there's one thing that illegal downloads ARE more likely to have and that's viruses. A few months back a work colleague was looking for an album and went "I'm not paying a tenner for that", downloaded it illegally and ended up paying over £30 to get the virus sorted! :)

I think I should add this to the conversation here:

 

You may think albums are cheap here (they could be even cheaper in some cases) but UK is a small country in terms of population compared to the worldwide population. Do you have any ideas how much they cost outside the UK (and probably the US) ? Well last summer I wanted to buy 'Lungs' while I was in Greece.. Despite the fact it was out for months and you could find it (the physical) for 5p or so in the UK it costed 20E!!! And Greece is a member of the E.U. + relatively close to the UK so all the transfer costs are sharply reduced. Imagine living somewhere futher ;)

 

Also it is genrally accepted (and proved by research) that people who heavily download illegaly music have a much greater chance to buy something legaly than people who don't. And that's because they are involved, they are interested in music, it becomes part of their life and they develop favourite genres and artists they would like to support. At least they care.

 

The way artists and companies make money does not depend on record sales anymore. It has to do with advertising, internet, videos etc and most importantly big tours. The fact that you will get 'visits' at your songs that you normally wouldn't and many more people will know about you than the fans who would normally buy your album helps you become more popular. This way you have a greater chance your next one will sell more, you get money through advertising, more people willing to see you on tour etc...

 

Don't overlook all these facts (plus what I already mentioned, adding this 'illegal' strong competiton is a way of balancing the companies greediness)

Incredible topic.

 

Thinking about it i imagine all the illegal downloads, and bluetooth, sending via msn etc . we would have loads of million sellers if they werent around.

 

I download illegally alot tbh :/

 

the only time i dont is if its an artist i want to support, or when buying a hard copy of an album.

I think I should add this to the conversation here:

 

You may think albums are cheap here (they could be even cheaper in some cases) but UK is a small country in terms of population compared to the worldwide population. Do you have any ideas how much they cost outside the UK (and probably the US) ? Well last summer I wanted to buy 'Lungs' while I was in Greece.. Despite the fact it was out for months and you could find it (the physical) for 5p or so in the UK it costed 20E!!! And Greece is a member of the E.U. + relatively close to the UK so all the transfer costs are sharply reduced. Imagine living somewhere futher ;)

 

Also it is genrally accepted (and proved by research) that people who heavily download illegaly music have a much greater chance to buy something legaly than people who don't. And that's because they are involved, they are interested in music, it becomes part of their life and they develop favourite genres and artists they would like to support. At least they care. THIS!

 

The way artists and companies make money does not depend on record sales anymore. It has to do with advertising, internet, videos etc and most importantly big tours. The fact that you will get 'visits' at your songs that you normally wouldn't and many more people will know about you than the fans who would normally buy your album helps you become more popular. This way you have a greater chance your next one will sell more, you get money through advertising, more people willing to see you on tour etc...

 

Don't overlook all these facts (plus what I already mentioned, adding this 'illegal' strong competiton is a way of balancing the companies greediness)

 

Also it is genrally accepted (and proved by research) that people who heavily download illegaly music have a much greater chance to buy something legaly than people who don't.

 

 

They have every chance of buying music but but downloading illegally aren't they doing the opposite???

Basically all of my downloads are illegal unfortuently. I am only 15, so don't have enough money to buy from iTunes basically, plus I download A LOT of music so even if I did, I would be spending an awful lot of money on it, far too much. I do however, buy albums if I really love it and want to support the artist, like I bought Dionne Bromfield and Jay Z & Kanye West the other week, because I had heard the albums and loved them and want to support them, like I also do with Beyonce, Gaga and Jessie. I always illegally download singles, unless I can't find it or I REALLY support the artist, like I bought DILAD and PT before the albums release.

They have every chance of buying music but but downloading illegally aren't they doing the opposite???

What he means is the heaviest downloaders of illegal music usually download more legally than those casual music fans who just download 2 or 3 songs illegally every week. :P

I think I should add this to the conversation here:

 

You may think albums are cheap here (they could be even cheaper in some cases) but UK is a small country in terms of population compared to the worldwide population. Do you have any ideas how much they cost outside the UK (and probably the US) ? Well last summer I wanted to buy 'Lungs' while I was in Greece.. Despite the fact it was out for months and you could find it (the physical) for 5p or so in the UK it costed 20E!!! And Greece is a member of the E.U. + relatively close to the UK so all the transfer costs are sharply reduced. Imagine living somewhere futher ;)

 

Also it is genrally accepted (and proved by research) that people who heavily download illegaly music have a much greater chance to buy something legaly than people who don't. And that's because they are involved, they are interested in music, it becomes part of their life and they develop favourite genres and artists they would like to support. At least they care.

 

The way artists and companies make money does not depend on record sales anymore. It has to do with advertising, internet, videos etc and most importantly big tours. The fact that you will get 'visits' at your songs that you normally wouldn't and many more people will know about you than the fans who would normally buy your album helps you become more popular. This way you have a greater chance your next one will sell more, you get money through advertising, more people willing to see you on tour etc...

 

Don't overlook all these facts (plus what I already mentioned, adding this 'illegal' strong competiton is a way of balancing the companies greediness)

You actually raise a very good point. Research (conveniently ignored by most) has actually suggested that people who illegally download actually spend more money than those who don't. The article I read said that those who frequently used torrent sites to download films went the the cinema more and bought more DVD's (Same for TV shows, people who download buy more Boxsets) and those who illegally download music spend more money than anyone else on going to gigs and on merchandise. Which is great as the companies make a mountain more from Gig's and T-Shirts than downloads or CDs.

 

A lot of the times illegal downloads can lead to a sale that never would have happened without the illegal download. I downloaded an album by Molly Sandén because I liked what she had on myspace, discovered the album was of a very high standard and imported it from Sweden gaining a sale that otherwise would never have happened.

 

Also, its actually intellectual property theft which is why you do not get prosecuted by the police. They like to use the word illegal, but it isn't really. You get taken to Civil court rather than criminal court and Hollywood/Record labels don't want that to change because in a criminal caught you'd be made to pay the value of the items you acquired. For example, a chart album, you'd be charged the £9.99 or what ever the sale price is and that'd be you on your way. Via civil court they can have you fined utterly outrageous amounts thanks to 'damages' and the American trend of suing for EVERYTHING. You aren't actually committing a crime, technically.

^Yes that's absolutely true. Geoff Taylor (Head of the BPI) keeps on whining about how it's immoral and 'hurting' artists; the sue culture that surrounds the whole issue of illegal downloading and threatening children for downloading illegally is what's truly immoral. How he can keep moaning when the digital music/entertainment sector continues to show massive growth in what is a very frail worldwide economy at the moment beggars belief.

 

According to my iTunes, I have made 953 legal song purchases since 10 October 2005 (when iTunes was installed) from either iTunes, 7Digital or AmazonMP3. Most of the rest of the songs on my MacBook/ iPod are ripped from CDs that I've purchased (or borrowed from friends) and a small percentage, I would estimate only around 1%, are from illegal downloads.

 

I do download illegally occasionally (some of this is ripping from SoundCloud to MP3) but this is only ever when the song isn't available to buy, and never albums as I usually just wait to listen on Spotify or something before I buy. In most cases I then won't buy the song legally as I often just buy the album it's taken from at a later date..

Edited September 10, 201113 yr by Doctor Blind

Strictly speaking the very act of ripping a CD which you have paid for onto your pc and then adding it to your ipod illegal!

 

At the end of the day, though, no matter how hard they try the illegal downloading isn't going to go away.....

Basically all of my downloads are illegal unfortuently. I am only 15, so don't have enough money to buy from iTunes basically, plus I download A LOT of music so even if I did, I would be spending an awful lot of money on it, far too much. I do however, buy albums if I really love it and want to support the artist, like I bought Dionne Bromfield and Jay Z & Kanye West the other week, because I had heard the albums and loved them and want to support them, like I also do with Beyonce, Gaga and Jessie. I always illegally download singles, unless I can't find it or I REALLY support the artist, like I bought DILAD and PT before the albums release.

 

Same! =]

 

i downloaded all night long, bad boys, broken heels and bought them hard copy :L

Strictly speaking the very act of ripping a CD which you have paid for onto your pc and then adding it to your ipod illegal!

 

How on earth is this illegal ? :/

I illegally download songs by artists I'm not a big fan of, but if its anything by an artist I truly like I will buy it to support them. I never really illegally download albums though.