Piracy out of Control

In Tune Audio

New member
Okay, I know this has been talked about a number of times on this forum before, but I just heard a sick statistic.

In Music Tech Magazine, it said that an estimated 36% of all software in use (games, utilities, etc.) is illegaly obtained.

This is the disgusting part. When it comes to music software, the piracy rate is estimated at 80%!!!!!

I'm not trying to start another, huge thread about this, but I'm sorry thats, really awful. Is it really so hard to pay to use something. I'm surprised some of the companies are even wasting their time and money designing new programs.
 
In Tune Audio said:
I'm surprised some of the companies are even wasting their time and money designing new programs.

and the funny thing is, companies and artists still make a shit load of money! how many Windows XP copies are on the internet right now? how many Brittany Spears songs?? And I don't see Bill and Britanny sittin' down at the local food kitchen next to my poor ass!
 
I'd like to see figures on how many people who obtain illegal versions of recording software actually purchase the real program when they find out that it is of high quality. i know that if i download a game or a cd and i really like it i'll throw down the cash for the real thing. I'm not ashamed to say that i tried out cubase before buying a legit copy; i'm very wary of spending lots of money on software that might not suit my purposes.
 
There’s nothing that can be done about piracy. Except piss people off. by making it more inconvenient to use and register and back up the software, and suing their customers. The day piracy stops is the day people stop buying software or even using it. Besides those percentages are based on what they are projecting they will be making. You cant tell for sure who much of the software is pirated.
 
I can "almost" understand the whole try-before-you-buy crowd - It makes sense. High-end software should provide some sort of demo.

But certainly, it's disconcerting to see studio setups with a Behringer mixer, a pair of Mackie monitors...

And $30,000 worth of plugins...

There are studios that even advertise this - Not that they're using pirated software, but their lists make it pretty obvious to anyone who's ever seen one of those "collections" with all the doubles... For instance - Cubase SX3 and Nuendo 3. Waves Diamond Bundle, Mastering Bundle and Platinum Bundle.

Bizzare that they'd even throw that stuff up on their websites...
 
my main argument for try-before-you-buy is only valid when the demo software is lacking in features available to the full version. for example, i downloaded a demo that had a 30 minute time limit and had no audio mixdown capability.. so i wasn't able to finish a mix and try it out on a few stereos (what i'd do with a full program), so the demo was useless to me. a full, cracked, version of the program gives a better picture of what the software is capable of; granted, it's totally on the honour system.

i'll go on record as saying that anyone who makes a profit using cracked or illegal software/plugins deserves to go to jail.
 
shiatzu said:
i'll go on record as saying that anyone who makes a profit using cracked or illegal software/plugins deserves to go to jail.


I have to say that I agree. And if someone was stealing from me, I'd do something about it.


Oh, but I becareful using the word "profit", we are talking about recording services!
 
bennychico11 said:
and the funny thing is, companies and artists still make a shit load of money! how many Windows XP copies are on the internet right now? how many Brittany Spears songs?? And I don't see Bill and Britanny sittin' down at the local food kitchen next to my poor ass!

This argument never fails to annoy me - the artists you mention are in the top what, 5% of the industry? The vast majority of artists get hurt, and bad.

The same is true of the software industry.
 
fraserhutch said:
This argument never fails to annoy me - the artists you mention are in the top what, 5% of the industry? The vast majority of artists get hurt, and bad.

The same is true of the software industry.

yeah, but that's most of what? the small local bands? but even then...those bands may have one or two songs on the internet...and only a very very small portion of the downloading crowd actually listens to them. So if Joe puts up his copy of X band's album...and if the only person that year is Chris who happens to be in the same town downloads one song off it...is the artist still getting hurt financially? The bigger name bands don't get hurt as much either because they are the Brittany Spears or the Metallicas who make a crap load of money off of touring and their One Million CD sales (despite music piracy, bands still hit the One Million CD mark).

dont' get me wrong, I'm not for music piracy either. I think if you like a band you should support them as much as you can, including giving them money. But I think it hurts an artist emotionally that people are trading their songs, more than it hurts them monetarily.

the music companies claim they are losing money to piracy, when in fact they are actually just producing and distributing less albums than in previous years. It's their own fault (or maybe the fault of where the economy is at right now) that they are losing money.
 
I can understand the try before you buy thing. when you buy a $25,000 car, they AT least let you drive it around with all of its features active: its not like you can only go 15mph or only turn left. So when you get a demo for software that costs about $700-$1500 that doesnt really show all of its features, its worthless. I own all of my software and games.
 
seryozha said:
I can understand the try before you buy thing. when you buy a $25,000 car, they AT least let you drive it around with all of its features active: its not like you can only go 15mph or only turn left. So when you get a demo for software that costs about $700-$1500 that doesnt really show all of its features, its worthless. I own all of my software and games.

Good analogy.
 
in the hi-end market people who are useing the software to make money usually pay for it. people just goofing off usually do not.

the target customer is the pro, thus the hi pricetag.

sooooooooooooo

if piracy never existed the "pirates" wouldn't bother to buy the programs anyway, meaning the ACTUAL loss of profit is very little.

on cheep consumer crap the storey is different.

and on music

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

JUST LIKE IN THE PAST musicans will have to make thier money PLAYING MUSIC for people (ie. performing)

musicians existed before labels did.
(sigh)
 
another thing is you cant return software. If its not cut out to be what was advertised then your screwed. You can return your CD burner PC MAC audio card and what ever hardware you buy. you may even have to pay 15% restocking fee. Try retuning any software and see what they tell you. Still the whole pirate before you by thing will not fly most of the time. I mean if you pirate a software to try it out, it would be very tempting to just keep it since you already have it and not pay for it. then you catch yourself doing it often. Then you become addicted and cant stop downloading all this free stuff.
 
it all makes sense in music anyway

the same time technology droped the bottom out of the price of recording gear, and thus the flood of the recording market resulting in lower prices to record, the technology to transport songs via the internet appeared.

put it together........

bands will now pay to record themselves with the hope that thier music gets spread as far as possible, aka advertiseing for gigs.

you're less apt to go see a band you don't know

people who think this is bad for bands are just, plain and simple, looking at it wrong.

makeing an album will be a smaller investment, and you will look for the return IN DIFFERENT PLACES
thats all

bitching will not change the world, just adapt
 
altiris said:
another thing is you cant return software. If its not cut out to be what was advertised then your screwed. You can return your CD burner PC MAC audio card and what ever hardware you buy. you may even have to pay 15% restocking fee. Try retuning any software and see what they tell you. Still the whole pirate before you by thing will not fly most of the time. I mean if you pirate a software to try it out, it would be very tempting to just keep it since you already have it and not pay for it. then you catch yourself doing it often. Then you become addicted and cant stop downloading all this free stuff.

true, there is a danger in getting addicted.. but say you're running a recording business and you boot up nuendo 2 in front of your client and it comes up with the "H20 - try before you buy - Warezed version!" logo or whatever.. i don't think that'd be too cool.
 
About music piracy, as a musician, I can honestly say that I would be happy that people would be interested enough to download my bands cd. Thats free publicity, to me. If a band is really good, people will go out to their shows, and they will buy their merch, and Im willing to bet that alot of those people found out about that band because their friend was like "dude go download this cd!". I think theres enough people out there that are honest to say "man, I really like this band, and Im going to support them". If theres a really good cd, that has MORE THAN ONE GOOD SONG, people will buy it. And, theres nothing like owning the real cd. Its something special.

And I think the whole "try before you buy" thing is a totaly valid reason for downloading software. People cant afford to go blow $500, or even $90 on software that MIGHT not meet their needs. You cant exactly trade it in and be like "uhh this sucks...can I have my money back....pleeease?". And plus, if you try out the program and you like it, and then buy it, who cares? The company gets their money. If you try it, dont like it, and then get a different program, then you just saved yourself some heartache.

Now, downloading software, just because you would wrather spend your 900 dollars on a mic, is a terrible thing. Because if there was no software up for download, then you would have spent your money on the software. Maybe not that exact 900 dollar software, but some of the cheaper software, and those guys get hurt. And its also unfair to the people who pay hard earned money for their software.

Its a touchy issue, but its good to see theres people on here doing the right thing.
 
So your arguments are that there really ought not be such a a thing as a recording musician - musicians should nmake their living gigging? Would that that could be true, but the economics are not there.

You are the same people people who bitch about the cost of tickets. You want to consume music and software, but not pay for it. It costs money to make albums and to do shows. The vasty majority of musicians are lucky if they make $100 night at a gig. That's what, $600 a week for a 6-day week? What kind of life is that?

There is a reason bands look for the recording deal. And you are arguing that they should not make a living from record sales and royalties????
 
fraserhutch said:
So your arguments are that there really ought not be such a a thing as a recording musician - musicians should nmake their living gigging? Would that that could be true, but the economics are not there.

You are the same people people who bitch about the cost of tickets. You want to consume music and software, but not pay for it. It costs money to make albums and to do shows. The vasty majority of musicians are lucky if they make $100 night at a gig. That's what, $600 a week for a 6-day week? What kind of life is that?

There is a reason bands look for the recording deal. And you are arguing that they should not make a living from record sales and royalties????

if you're a touring musician you're not going to get any profit from club owner payouts.. in fact, you'd operate at a loss. where you make a profit is in selling merchandise and cds at the clubs... just thought i'd post that out.
 
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