Will piracy kill off prog rock ?

Musicmetric has released a study that suggests that more than twice as many albums were downloaded illegally over the six-month period as were legitimately bought through digital outlets.

Conclusions have been drawn from the data suggesting that the illegal download activity equates to £500m in lost revenue at retail, although that assumes that all illegal downloaders would have bought a particular album had piracy not been an option."

Dean wrote: It is clear from Pedro's emotional response to my posts that he, and perhaps others, think I am defending the record labels here. I am not. I merely described the reality and made no judgement on whether that is right or wrong or good or bad. It is also clear that he, and perhaps others, finds the idea of making records being a business distasteful and somehow cheapens the art, but that's another topic of conversation and not what we are discussing here.

Incorrect.

I'm not anti-business any more than I am anti-idiocy!

However, too many of us "artistes", do not want to have the patience necessary to deal with an accountant, to learn something simple about business that will get you going fairly well. In America, you CAN do this as a business and take your best shots at it. I don't know that the same "legal/commercial/tax-design" is a satisfactory idea for most people.

One of the issues in "business", and I ran two restaurants, is that there is ALWAYS a small percentage that you are going to lose ... as the lettuce did not move fast enough, and you had to throw away half a case, and there goes the money. Likewise in a record business, there is a percentage that doesn't move, or in our example, was "stolen". Considering that we did not exactly "spend" money to create that stolen product, all you are accounting is INVISIBLE MONEY that you might have made, NOT LOST! It's money that you could have gained.

Just so you know, some of the biggest sellers of bootlegs and other illegal stuff, happened to be the same record executives, trying to buy off radio folks and this was huge enough in Los Angeles as to set off a massive payola thing, that is still not quite resolved, but showed how the place has changed, not to mention radio.

What is weird, is that I don't hear Bob Dylan complaining, or the Grateful Dead, and they were the 2 highest numbers of bootlegs out there. And they will be remembered. This has helped me re-think the steal thing, and the reason why I have no respect for Metallica or a handful of bands, that want the money and don't care about anything else ... in other words, they are merely defending their lifestyle! NOT YOURS, OR MINE, btw ... because the law is designed to protect them!

I'm not a great fan of the piracy side of things. Because that is nasty and un-cool. But the bootleg side, FOR ME, is not about "piracy", and I think this is where I made the error, in your discussion. Piracy, in your desctiption, is stealing the CD, relabeling it and selling it. Yes, I would castrate that fudger as fast as you would! But the bootlegs, is another story. It's like night and day with the bootlegs, and what you learn from the artist is far more exciting and beautiful in the whole context of the artistry involved, than otherwise. This was the case of the "big ones" with the bootlegs. They were magnificently different, and you learned something about the persons behind it. You can not see that in the LP's at all! The 15 different versions of "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" are magnificent. So are the 15 different versions of "Echoes". So are the 15 different versions of "Atom Heart Mother". You might say they were bored, but you and I are the listeners, and we experience different things when hearing something different. This is the benefit of the artistry in the bootleg area.

But the whole "piracy" thing, is not something that I will stand by or accept. And whatever you do, please at least understand this about me. I'm about the artistry, not the piracy ... even though I have had a screenplay stolen, and will never be able to get another one sold because mine are now protected at a couple of national libraries. And this intimidates a group of business folks, that are looking to make money, and don't really give a darn about your work.

Btw, I DID PRODUCE a record album, for Guy Guden. The total cost for 1000 copies was $2800 dollars (sorry, don't remember the exact figure), or about $2.80 per album. This was in 1978, by the way. That included the hard cover and the cellophane and Guy's design and such. It did not include the "master" which the folks at the place did for a nominal small fee, since their money was obviously in the number of LP's done. I did not lose on that deal and we got the money back for it, and the rest was saved. It featured Guy's comedy. Just like the discussion here, the album was fine but Guy's work on the air in his comedy was far superior to the album, even if he was hoping to use it as a lead in to his acting ability, which was exceptional and quite disciplined on the stage.

All in all, just don't confuse what I posted. I do not support piracy, and will not even REVIEW an album that I do not have the CD of! Why? ... I LOVE THE MUSIC I HAVE ... you know and understand that, and I do not wish to corrupt that love and appreciation. that appreciation was acquired from a long time of buying a lot of LP's, imports, all the way to 1985 and 1990, because it was the only blood that fed this vampire. Piracy, for me, was always theft, as it still is.

But I have seen theft on my own work. But waiting for a nickel to arrive in my mail tomorrow is not something that I can live with or from. Besides that, I'm an "enfant terrible" and like many of us here, extremely independent, but I will tell you, that if someone robs me, go ahead, but that person's kharmic disposition is going to take a severe hit, and hopefully it won't destroy their life or family!