A small note on Travis' point 1)
*Marketers (talent "spotters", new product/biz development) in the music industry do (did?) very well vs. other industries. Artists USUALLY get proceeds on a fixed scale -- unless they're on their way up and that "fixed" scale falters...:)
*A significant part of the asking price of a cd (ex sales tax, of course) goes to retailers -- i.e. the people who take care of the logistics involved in bringing the s/ware to us, the end users.
*Large retail chains also play on returns & payment terms for the s/ware they buy. Also, they may physically return cd's that do not sell. This raises the issue of financial mgt for production companies (I'm not saying they don't do it well).
*Some music industry execs bemoan (to me) the fact that times have changed irreversibly: before, all they had to was produce an LP, then cd, and it would sell (via radio support & other ad means). NOW they actually have to find ways of convincing us TO BUY the d*mn stuff -- something they were NOT used to having to do...
*Piracy, as in copying, exists it seems and eats into the industry's T-Over. OTOH, whatever is locked can be unlocked... coming back to mgt & creative mgt at that: locking doesn't seem to address the issue adequately. BUT sound quality could...
*At the end of the day, what we're debating here IMO is not whether we should PAY for s/ware & how much. It's the perceived ADDED VALUE ADD of what we get for the asking price that has us wondering, isn't it? I.e. "what am I really paying for, and is it justified? Cheers
*Marketers (talent "spotters", new product/biz development) in the music industry do (did?) very well vs. other industries. Artists USUALLY get proceeds on a fixed scale -- unless they're on their way up and that "fixed" scale falters...:)
*A significant part of the asking price of a cd (ex sales tax, of course) goes to retailers -- i.e. the people who take care of the logistics involved in bringing the s/ware to us, the end users.
*Large retail chains also play on returns & payment terms for the s/ware they buy. Also, they may physically return cd's that do not sell. This raises the issue of financial mgt for production companies (I'm not saying they don't do it well).
*Some music industry execs bemoan (to me) the fact that times have changed irreversibly: before, all they had to was produce an LP, then cd, and it would sell (via radio support & other ad means). NOW they actually have to find ways of convincing us TO BUY the d*mn stuff -- something they were NOT used to having to do...
*Piracy, as in copying, exists it seems and eats into the industry's T-Over. OTOH, whatever is locked can be unlocked... coming back to mgt & creative mgt at that: locking doesn't seem to address the issue adequately. BUT sound quality could...
*At the end of the day, what we're debating here IMO is not whether we should PAY for s/ware & how much. It's the perceived ADDED VALUE ADD of what we get for the asking price that has us wondering, isn't it? I.e. "what am I really paying for, and is it justified? Cheers