Why does everything has to be so complicated?

[masone]

hi,

im not really sure on how to put the question right, so i just give it a go...

i guess this topic has been talked to death here already, but i still dont get a lot of stuff, maybe im to dumb/naiv to see it, so i thought i just ask

since record companies notice a decline in sales and a raise in (illegal) actions in the use of the internet - why the f*ck isnt anybody able to seize that technology? i just upgraded to traktor pro and wanted to give my collection an update on meta-informations and its harder to find for example cover images of vinyls than the pirated mp3 online. let alone simple informations on catno and release date. why is that so?

why do samples of tracks have to be posted on myspace!? wtf. (or better yet at youtube)
and why only give out 30sek samples, if the vinyl rip will be online sooner or later anyhow? why not just _use_ the technology if its there and already used by so many people!? im not saying to publish the complete music and give it out for free, but just put low quality files in those nets, put a link where you can buy it, and lets see what happens. since we all can agree, that the internet sharing wont ever be gone, couldnt labels just make the best out of it?

another thing that just bothers me: if i have to categorize the label actions on that forum here, i see two things: labels that do care post their release informations about 1 month before the actual release is out to buy, and well.. labels that dont care and the information just popps up here. the first thing, well if i cant buy it, why the f should i care?! i got an attention span for max 2 weeks when it comes to "frehs" vinyls, if its not out by then, i dont want to have it anymore. (seriously)

ah.. i could go on but im too lazy.. and i have the feeling that this wont end well anyhow ;)

[PsyTox]

and why only give out 30sek samples, if the vinyl rip will be online sooner or later anyhow? why not just _use_ the technology if its there and already used by so many people!?

do you also just put your car key on the roof of your car because people will steal it anyway?

I have another solution for us: since I've been losing lots of money on this label thing, I'm stopping signing other artists. And I'll just use the "label" to release my own music, which doesn't cost me anything. So, thanks to the illegal downloading we have to stop giving chances to unknown talent. If that's what you understand as "making the best of it", then I can only ask: best for who?

As for the artwork: well, every release is delivered with artwork so I imagine that it should be downloadable too... haven't tried it yet tho'.

[masone]

and why only give out 30sek samples, if the vinyl rip will be online sooner or later anyhow? why not just _use_ the technology if its there and already used by so many people!?

do you also just put your car key on the roof of your car because people will steal it anyway?

that comparison doesnt make any sense at all.
the correct compare would have been, that some "uber-social being" with the intentions of selling his/a car would let people testdrive his car with the risk, that the car gets stolen

im sorry for you to lose money with something you love to make and for the bitter pill to swallow and stopping to do it they way you would like to do.


hm another thought i just got.. how do you know you lose your money through illegal mp3s on the internet? do you actually know where? how many downloads do you have there? did you put some stuff up there for marketing purposes? did you receive any feedback?

[Atheory]

i think labels are trying lots of things to make the best of it.

its easy for people to tell them what they should do, but its their money, their risks, their (in some cases) art.....

anyway i'd say the golden age/dark age of file sharing could decline soon (ie rapidshare court case germany etc) advances in technology, blah blah blah. or maybe it wont.

anyway, the inconveniences you suffer with your metainformation are pretty minor in the grand scheme of the piracy issue.

[masone]

anyway, the inconveniences you suffer with your metainformation are pretty minor in the grand scheme of the piracy issue.

yes.. thanks for making that clear..

im just curious why thousands of blogs with direct access to the mp3s pop up by just entering the name of a song/ep into google. and since we all learned how google pageranking works i say that labels didnt do their homework or on the other hand thousands of website link to the illegal blogs..

its easy for people to tell them what they should do

yes, thats why im asking.. here are some label owners, and i thought im allowed to ask, because it interests me... not because i want to critize, make stupid suggestions.. just because it interests me

[Del]

another thing that just bothers me: if i have to categorize the label actions on that forum here, i see two things: labels that do care post their release informations about 1 month before the actual release is out to buy, and well.. labels that dont care and the information just popps up here. the first thing, well if i cant buy it, why the f should i care?! i got an attention span for max 2 weeks when it comes to "frehs" vinyls, if its not out by then, i dont want to have it anymore. (seriously)

I agree with you here. If i check out a release before it's available to buy then more often than not by the time it becomes available I've either forgotten about it or since I've known about it one month previously I'll pass on it and go for something 'fresh' instead. There's so much music out there and so many releases (too many probably) that it makes no sense for me to keep my eye on something for so long until it becomes available. Unless it's something REALLY special then I'm happy to wait.

[PsyTox]

im just curious why thousands of blogs with direct access to the mp3s pop up by just entering the name of a song/ep into google. and since we all learned how google pageranking works i say that labels didnt do their homework or on the other hand thousands of website link to the illegal blogs..

I'm not quite sue what you mean, but if you mean that labels aren't doing their homework because the illegal stuff is online and nothing is done to stop it, then the answer is pretty simple: labels don't have money for lawyers and to chase after illegal blogs etc. While the blogs of course all run for free.

How I know I lose money? Simple. We once tried your theory in practice. We released one EP on Beatport and we gave one track to a blog completely for free, with the explicit question not to say that we had given it to them.
And then all we had to do was check the stats. We sold about 50-60 of the tracks that were available legally, and the track that we gave to the blog sold 10. You could argue that the track was not as good as the others perhaps, but behold, it was downloaded a whopping 7500 times on that blog.
I dj regularly and I can tell you that it's really depressing to see young guys com in with huge piles of burned cd's which they all got from soulseek or some blogs, not to mention the fantastic feeling you get when they come up to you and say "hey, great label man, I downloaded all of it!". And when you ask where, the answer is always a blog name or soulseek. They aren't even aware anymore of the fact that they just steal from us. (That's also why my comparison absolutely sticks).

[masone]

We once tried your theory in practice. We released one EP on Beatport and we gave one track to a blog completely for free, with the explicit question not to say that we had given it to them.
And then all we had to do was check the stats. We sold about 50-60 of the tracks that were available legally, and the track that we gave to the blog sold 10. You could argue that the track was not as good as the others perhaps, but behold, it was downloaded a whopping 7500 times on that blog.

thanks... thats exactly what i wanted to know. i knew i wasnt the only one with that "fantastic" idea, but it just bothered me so much, that i had to ask. i mean in theory, those blogs are worth of pure gold. this aint paid google adwords or banner campaigns where noone clicks, you get _directly_ to your audience.

I'm not quite sue what you mean, but if you mean that labels aren't doing their homework because the illegal stuff is online and nothing is done to stop it

no what i ment is, since those labels have their very personal brand and unique content, why is it that those first google searchresults arent filled with pages about that content!? things that come to mind are resident advisor, vinyl shops, discogs... i dont know.. not that it would make a difference i know, but what it shows is, in my opinion, the lack of work with the "fanbase". maybe its not anymore just about releasing stuff and hoping it gets aknowledge somehow, but working with that product and selling it.

after your answer i realise that i dont have a clue, i got that know, but since a while i have the feeling that most of the labels dont have a concept behind the way their vinyls get to the user. i mean, how good is it if thousands of high profile djs play the songs long before they are available for the masses? who benefits from this in the long run? the people who dont have a clue dont see a difference anyhow and the others ask, wait, start to hear the song played more often, finally get release info, then after a month or two, it gets released on vinyl, now every bedroom dj plays it, and after two weeks its finally out on beatport. why the hell should i buy this now!? and reading in the decks infotext "hammered by the likes of.... " doesnt convince me as a vinyl-dj either..

nah anyways, i probably dont have a clue, but those were just some things that came to my mind.. plus with your head up in the web 2.0 cloud and obama raising up to 50mio dollar in a month by using the web it just made me wonder ;)