Audio Galaxy's dead...

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Argo
  • Start date Start date

RIAA Closed [color=Blue]Audio Galaxy [/color], What's your reaction ?

  • AARRGHHHH !!! NO WAAAYY !!!! Bring 'em back alive...

    Votes: 13 50.0%
  • YEEEAAAH !!!! Die...!!! Die forever, you A** H***!!!

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Umhh... Sorry... but I can live with that...

    Votes: 5 19.2%
  • grspkwehgcxzlyoxp... ( No comment...)

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Audio Galaxy...? what was that ?

    Votes: 4 15.4%

  • Total voters
    26
Revone,

post an answer when you know better. Maybe some hughe live acts arent that reliable on CD sales, but heaps of young beginning bands potential is measured by CD sales

Not only can those sales give theirselves an income (Just try to make a living from your music as a young band), Cd sales are on of the reasons a band can get a tour, promotion and some airplay!


I'd like to see you make music, not to sell anything and then make enough money from your music to live. Majors can take a big percent in royalties, but don't let those stupid cowboy stories 'the band doesn't get a thing' get on to you.

Clearly you are a newbie :mad:
 
Couldn't agree more with Brett about copying and pirating. Maybe two years ago or so, a band who was fronted by a friend of my guitar player, got signed to Capitol. Well of course the band was ecstatic and figured they had hit it big time. They had bigwigs telling them that they were going to be the next best thing since sliced bread and all that crap.

They recorded an album, it got radio play but did not sell well enough and six months later they were dropped. That's it. Six months and it was based on CD sales. If you pirate music you very possibly could have contributed to what was probably one of the most depressing things that happened in these four peoples lives...

If your a musician, think about how you would feel if Capitol walked up and offered you a contract, one good enough your entertainment attourney says to go for it. They are going to pay to record, market, and get YOUR songs on radio stations and in record stores around the world. You'd be walking on clouds, calling the boss to quit the day job and telling all the people who said you should persue something with more of a future "HAHAH I told ya so!"

Now think of how you'd feel knowing that you were dropped because CD sales weren't up to snuff. Think about how you would feel about people who pirated your music. If you pirate music this is what you contribute to. People cry "I can't afford to pay $20 for a CD" (nevermind the fact that I can only think of a few CD's I paid more than $16 for and only a double disc set that was $20) , when you break that over the number of tracks it's like $1.25 per song. You can't pay $1.25 per song that you get to listen to over and over?? Then don't and listen to it on the radio. Just because you can't afford something doesn't make it right to steal it. I can't afford a freaking Corvette but that doesn't entitle me to just go and steal one does it? No, I have to work within what I can afford. Comparing the cost of a vette to a CD a bit extreme?? Then go into your local store and try walking out of there with $15 in goods and explain to them "I can't afford it and the companies that produce these goods are just ripping people off anyway" and see how far that get's ya. After you do, why don't you post the address to the local jail your sitting in a week for and I'll mail you some cigarettes to keep "Bubba" your bunkmate off of you for a few more hours.

It's funny because it seems like people around here are always bitching about the record companies ripping people off. If anyone is ripping you off it's the freaking CD shops. I posted in a different thread a stat I read in a trade mag once. 9 out of 10 signed bands never see any money after the initial advance. This is because they don't make enough money to cover the advance. That means record labels lose money on 9 out of 10 projects they sign. It's money that enables record companies to sign bands and promote bands. Less money means they will sign fewer clients. In smaller labels this is really appearent. When you steal music you are making it harder for someone else to get signed. No one seems to get this and they want to blame record companies for why music is so expensive.

But what do CD stores do? They mark the price of the discs and they take close to 50% is what they do and yet no one says anything about that. You think they deserve half of the cost of a CD? Appearently so since I havn't seen one single gripe about that. You think record companies set the price on the CD? They let the retailer know how much they expect to get back on each CD and the retailer does the rest. The retailer is the biggest screwer in all of this. I have yet to see retailers taking risks signing bands and giving musicians a chance at some real big money, have you? And so you want to bite the hand that may someday feed you if your lucky?

I'm sorry this is so long but pirating has gotten out of control and as a full time musician it really pisses me off. All of this "Oh the bands make so much money on tour they don't care about the piddley little amount they make from CD sales" may be true for a select few, but not for the majority of us out there. And the earlier mentioned "They have so much money they'd just as soon do it for free because they are only in it for the creativity and expression" is the biggest pile of crap, and is a statement that only someone who hasn't relied on their musicianship to pay the bills would make.
Kobe Bryant has more money than I can shake a stick at, yet you don't see him out there performing for free do you? Why not?

Think about it. Everytime you pirate, YOU, not the record companies, are killing the music industry. Stealing is stealing and you can rationalize it all you want and blame the industry all you want, but you are still a thief.

Now that I have set the record for two of the longest posts in history, I will go rest my weary fingers in ice water. ;)
 
Bass MAster, You have a strong point.

Beginning artists have extreme starting difficulties. Your example is a correct one: Young bands get dropped very early when the sales aren't big enough, and record companies don't dare to take any risks any longer for new projects, so they only ddare to sign commercial safe products, like boysbands. It's a vicious circle. The 'record company takes it all' argument can be justified in some cases, but often it is just used by ppl who try to silence their conscience when they make illegal copies of CD's.

Also CD-stores have hughe differences: I buyed recentely a Cd in a shop for €10 while it was €20 in another one: a simple example of many bargains you can do when you use your eyes.

But keep in mind that the position of record companies is beginning to fade out. Because, basically, the function of a record company is

* giving the artist a budget/studio time/producer or other help so he is able to record his music

* once recorded, getting the people to buy the Cd: so that means money for promotion and help for airplay.

Basically, the first thing is clealy less important nowadays: the prices of recording equipment have fallen while they quality of homerecordings has grown. Studio's have become cheaper, and I know beginning groups who have almost better sounding demo's than some old hits (it's a figure of speech off course:)). Big artist may want fancy ass studios for weeks with the top technicians, but the fact is that especially young and beginning artist don't need the record sompany to get a good sounding recording of their talent.

The second part is still important and the nowadays definetely the biggest function of the record companies. Even with a potential hit song on a Cd, as a independant artist you aren't going to get much airplay, or chances on some great touring schedule or whatever. So for that purpose record companies are still important for us to get our music in the open.

But also that power is getting more unstable (there is internet, underground scenes...) so the sensitive question is that the percentage of importance of the record companies is equal to the percentage of money that is involved.


just a few thoughts, any reactions welcome.

greets

Brett
 
More good points Brett.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the record companies are angels either. They are in business and their primary purpose is to make money. However, any screwing that is done by record companies is at least done in a contract form that the musician agreed to and signed so is the record company totally to blame because a musician agreed to a crappy deal?

I think it happens less today because musicians are more educated and (I would hope) most know that an entertainment attourney is a must in any important contract they sign. The days of musicians knowingly signing away all of their money SHOULD be long gone since everyone has heard horror stories of the 60's and 70's recording contracts. If someone gets screwed in todays music business...chances are they did it to themselves. And like Brett wisely points out, we need those companies because they are the ones who will get an artists music out there and promote it, and to lesser importance but still important, get the artist in with professional producers who can really make an artists material shine.

My main point was don't use some lame (and often incoorect) notion about the record co's as a reason to steal from artists. If you wouldn't feel comfortable walking into a store and stealing $15 worth of stuff, then don't pirate music because that is exactly what you are doing. Just because it is a faceless crime doesn't mean it is a victimless crime. Musician's livelihood and dreams depend on it.
 
That is why........ Unfortunately........ I don't really have that much current music, I just can't afford to buy it so I sadly have tp do without :( :( And I don't have the speed, proccessing power, or time to download music. :(
 
For some reason I feel like you wouldn't be upset if I was to shoplift a Timex or Fossil watch :D
 
I sometimes download music from the web - mostly older stuff & very hard to find albums. I felt quite good about myself a couple of weeks ago though.

I had downloaded Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot from the web, just to check it out. I listened to it non-stop for a few weeks - which is extremely rare for me. On a trip to an evil chain store to buy a new laser printer, I thought I'd check out the CDs & see if it was in the store. It was, and I felt obligated to buy it as I had enjoyed the "free" music so much.

Chalk one up for the better side of human nature, please. :)
Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way - and the artist is the one who suffers the most.

The concept of "freedom of information" is a noble one, but it also undermines some basic moral principles. As I feel our society is rotting from the inside out though, it probably doesn't matter much anyway.
 
It's not that a copied CD has never graced my player...I have a friend who occationally has burned a CD down for me to listen to. I'll spin it a few times and if I like it I go and buy it, if I don't I give him the CD back.

What kills me is when you go to someones house and they are all "Hey what do you want to listen to?" and they pull out their 300 capacity CD case with every single CD a copy. I recently was at a party where several people brought CD's and I'd guess the ratio of copies to authentic CD's was about 10 to 1. They're all talking about how great the net is for their music collections. I felt like saying "Ya, but the nets horrible for musicians bank accounts..." but I didn't :rolleyes: I think that it has become so common that people don't really think of it as being wrong anymore.

I guess my previous ranting post was just trying to wake people up. Don't say that a musician doesn't care if you steal his music unless you have asked him personally. Don't blame everything on the "evil record labels" and insist that they don't deserve your money because it all trickles down to the musicians and the opportunities available for musicians. I would love to see the day that a record labels says "We're really sorry your album got pirated so many times....here, have some of the money you really deserved to get.... we don't need it anyways, we're rolling in the stuff!" but that ain't gonna happen ;)

Jim....you have good karma coming your way. It sounds like we have similar views on the subject and I agree with your ascessment of society. It used to be that people didn't do bad things because they want to be good people. Now it seems like people won't do bad things if they think they can get cought. There's sadly a huge difference between the two. I would rather be surrounded by the first group of people.

btw jitteringjim, I love your track on the homerecording.comp CD. If that's you singing you have a kick ass voice man...
 
Bass Master, that's also my opinion on the view.

I don't go nagging to people who copy a cd occasionally to try some new music out, but still buy the majority of CD's.

But there is a beginning trend of people who just won't buy a single CD! I know people who have dozens of MP3 CD's with more than 1000 songs on it!!! I know people whose Cd collection is made 80% out of copied CD's, while that 20 % is bought before they had their CD-writer.

I really think that's a shitty attitude. You can copy some stuff now and then to try something new out, but you just can't take everything for granted...
 
I've got a new spin that really sucks...

-Went to a local bar that hired a dj service---the guy was downloading requests from free sites as he went!!!

This guy was actually making a buck off our collective backs!!!!

Graham.
 
btw jitteringjim, I love your track on the homerecording.comp CD. If that's you singing you have a kick ass voice man...

Thanks Bass Master, it's feedback like yours that makes this muckery worthwhile. Yeah, that's me singing - I haven't put out anything new in ages, though my studio is years beyond what I had when that was recorded. I'm a slacker.

Also, I'm trying to bank all the karma I can to offset the negative that I've sent out there. :D

Graham: that DJ should be well, [insert painful punishment here]... I mean really, making a buck off of pirated tunes? I'd have to speak with the management on that one. It's probably common though...

I was thinking about the moral and ethical points of this the other night. If the only way most of these people could get the music was to shoplift it from the store, they'd probably buy what they wanted. However, downloading it from the comfort of their home & burning it to CD doesn't seem the same. Either the average Joe doesn't understand the impact on the label / artist, or it's a character issue. I don't think it can be stopped, and I doubt if better quality music releases or lower CD prices will help. Perhaps a new & improved audio format will bring people who want the highest fidelity audio available back to the stores & the CD-R will wane in popularity - but the risk is probably too great for companies who are facing economic uncertainty to make the investments. It's fairly obvious the "honor system" isn't working well when one looks at record company sales...

IMHO: "stealing" from an artist who has sold millions of copies is not a good thing, but refusing to support an artist you've downloaded whose sales are probably only going to number a few thousand is far worse, and speaks volumes...

eh... [end rant]
 
jitteringjim said:


Thanks Bass Master, it's feedback like yours that makes this muckery worthwhile. Yeah, that's me singing - I haven't put out anything new in ages, though my studio is years beyond what I had when that was recorded. I'm a slacker.

Np bro....it's a really good track. On my first listen to the CD I actually got off my ass to go hit rewind and give it a second listen. I think it's one of the best tracks on the compilation. Is there a website where you have more of your stuff posted or for sale?

Do you remember what mic's you used and how you positioned them to record your acoustic? I am currently working on an acoustic rock project very similar to your tune and have been experimenting with mic placement. I read "the big one" in the mic section which gave me some great ideas, but I'm always looking for any additional info I can absorb. :)
 
Do you remember what mic's you used and how you positioned them to record your acoustic? I am currently working on an acoustic rock project very similar to your tune and have been experimenting with mic placement. I read "the big one" in the mic section which gave me some great ideas, but I'm always looking for any additional info I can absorb.

Yeah Bass Master, here's my setup (signal path) for that tune:

Yammie guitar with nearly dead strings (I always record my acoustic with nearly dead strings. For me, fresh, new twangy strings tend to wreak havoc when it comes time to EQ or add in some room effect). YMMV on all of that, though.

RODE NT1 6-8" out from the bridge of the acoustic, 45 degree angle into the body.

Alesis 12R mixer

Aphex 661 compressor with "tubification"

20 bit A/D converter

Soundblaster Live! card

That's all and there ain't no more. :D

I compressed the guitar ever so slightly while tracking, but other than that, no other magic except for FX plugs on the mixdown.
 
You did that on a soundblaster?? Your a freaking genious my friend. Do you have more stuff available to listen to? That one tune is really good man....

Thanks for the info.
 
There's a fine line between genious and stupidity I'm told.

You can d/l a few other demos of varying quality at my mp3.com page. I do indeed mean that the quality varies... from pretty good to very not so good. Knock yourself out. Most of these were posted in the clinic a long time ago.

http://www.mp3.com/gregbrogan
 
Peer To Peer Lover...

I've been looking everywhere, list 'em, and and here's the links you might want. Just use it wisely in your own risk...

BearShare 4.0.1 (www.Bearshare.com), 1.8MB
Blubster 2.0 (www.blubster.com), 2.72MB
DirectConnect 1.0 (www.neo-modus.com), 3.71MB
eDonkey2000 34.16.61 (www.edonkey2000.com), 600KB
FileNavigator 3.2 (www.filenavigator.com), 718KB
Gnucleus 1.8.4 (www.gnucleus.com), 1.1MB
Grokster 1.6 (www.grokster.com), 186KB
iMesh 3.1 (www.imesh.com), 2.6MB
Kazaa 1.7.2 (www.kazaa.com), 3.18MB
KazaaLite 1.7.2 (www.kazaalite.com), 1.19MB
LimeWire 2.5.5 (www.limewire.com), 3.16MB
Mactella 1.3.5 (www.cxc.com), 452KB
Morpheus 1.9 (www.morpheus-os.com), 4.63MB
Newtella 1.0b3 (www.newtella.com), 245KB
Qtraxmax 1.0.4 (www.qtraxmax.com), 3.2MB
Shareaza 1.5 (www.shareaza.com), 400KB
SongSpy XE Beta2.0 (www.songspy.com), 814KB
Soulseek 1.38 (www.slsk.org/slsk138.exe), 748KB
Toadnode (www.toadnode.com), 2.05MB
WinMX 3.22 (www.winmx.com), 680KB
xolox 1.22 (www.xolox.nl), 631.1KB

I haven't tried all of them, so don't ask for their rating. The file size doesn't always mean offering best service. Be carefull of using them, as they might also delivering spyware and/or viruses.


:cool: Papa James :cool:
 
I only used kazaa to find those "hard to find songs" because they usually had em, but now kazaalite has it all basically. RIAA won't stop music sharing, more and more programs are developed like everyday lol. The digital age has come. It's basically impossible to stop sharing music.
 
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