This is one of those topics that truly make me angry. I don’t know why the record labels don’t get it, but all you have to do is sell your products at a reasonable price and with reasonable ease and consumers will buy it. Of course, all the big record labels are fucking retards. So let me make it really simple: SELL YOUR MUSIC IN MP3 FORMAT AS SINGLE TRACKS. None of this DRM crap, none of this “album only” crap. Don’t fuck with us and we’ll GIVE you money for your music.
Why does this come up? I recently went hunting for some songs that caught my fancy for one reason or another. It was stupid what I had to go through to actually get the songs. But I recorded what I found and where to make a point. Below is a list of the songs and where I found them (FOUND them only. Remember kids “Piracy” is “wrong”).
Kid Rock – All Summer Long
Found it on on Amazon MP3 but in “album only” and costs $8.99. Fuck. You. I’m not going to spend $9 for one damn track. Found the track on The Pirate Bay.
Kevin Rudolf – Let it Rock
Not on Amazon. Actually found this song on iTunes. It was the first purchase I’ve made on iTunes in a long time. Ever since Amazon MP3 grew to contain a reasonable collection of music, I’ve refuses to use iTunes on the grounds of DRM. I figured it was a good time to test iTunes now since their library is supposed to be “DRM-free”. This song was indeed DRM-less but in stupid .m4a format, I know I can convert it, but seriously – no one fucking uses m4a. MP-FUCKING-THREE.
September – Can’t get over you
Not on Amazon or iTunes. Found it on Mininova.
Daddy DJ – Daddy DJ
Not on Amazon or iTunes, but it is an older song so I’m less surprised I didn’t find it there. Found it on Mininova.
DJ Sammy – Follow my Star
Not on Amazon or iTunes. Found it on The Pirate Bay.
Just for fun I pulled out Limewire and gave it a try. It is completely useless now and filled with crap. It doesn’t surprise me that the music companies are flooding it with shit, but P2P like Limewire hasn’t been popular or useful for many many years. It was on my machine though so I figured I’d give it a shot and see how badly flooded the network was.
The one thing that really surprised me was that not a single track above is available on Amazon MP3 (as a single). But this is this most perfect example of why the record labels are losing out. I’m willing to throw down $1 per song, that’s $5 for the tracks I mentioned. Not a lot, but multiplied by millions of fans… it adds up (which is the whole point of the $1-a-song business model). Instead, how much money did the record labels make off of me? $1. Yup… not much. Could have made 500% more money, but no… they’ve got to be money grubbing whores. But that’s ok. The music industry will be the next to bankrupt and everyone will celebrate. There ain’t gonna be a bail out for you fuckers.
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I totally fucking agree…