If you look at the typical arguments against piracy, one of the old saws usually trotted out is "people will steal stuff if given the opportunity." I've never believed that to be true. After all, there's still a tip jar in every coffee shop in America and that money is there for the goddamn taking. I think piracy is more about fairness: when a faceless organization wants to get between you and the music you want and charge you seventeen dollars for it, your natural reaction is "fuck you buddy" and before too long, you're up on TPB. Thing is, if I wanted music on Ghostly I could just go look them up on Demonoid or What. Hey, maybe I'll do that. And look at that - Demonoid gives me 148 maybe-related bands but not really, What gives me like 16 hits on FLAC. If I wanted to steal Ghostly music, I could have it at better quality than they're offering. After all, I've never heard of Ghostly (my musical experimentation pretty much stopped at The Fahrenheit Project) and I've got bandwidth. But I'm still keenly interested in this. So I downloaded their app, got annoyed that it didn't stream to my Airplay receiver, grabbed their URL, threw it at the Mac Mini, and now I'm listening to Moodgadget's playlist and enjoying it. I might damn well buy that $15 a month subscription for at least a few months. Not because I have no other recourse, but because I want to be a part of something cool. "I'm a fan." Here's the thing. I was on eMusic for, oh, four years. One of their first buyers. Had the grandfathered plan. Got my 90 downloads a month and often had to go hunt for stuff (one reason why I have something like 30 hours of ambient recordings). Their MP3s were never good - 128kbps VBR, as I recall - and I caught them ripping them audio-audio several times (ever heard an MP3 "skip"? You know someone fucked up). But I was willing to put up with that. Until they knocked me off my grandfathered plan from 90 tracks a month to 50 tracks a month. Not because they were having a hard time making ends meet... but because they just struck a deal with SONY and SONY wanted more money. http://frankhecker.com/2009/06/02/new-emusic-us-pricing/ Fuck you, eMusic. "I'm no longer a fan." So my eMusic subscription money has been split between SomaFM and the ACLU since 2009. I've had some lean times but turning off that tap just didn't seem right. I want to have my finger in the "digital" pie because yeah - I'll torrent a new album. Generally the stuff I want to listen to is either available for 15 euros with 9 euros shipping or it's available in 20 minutes off What.cd for free. The cost of legitimacy is just ridiculously too high when the cost of illegitimacy is nothing. Yet here's a label I've never heard of before and I'm all about investigating whether I want to sign up for a monthly draw from my account. Why don't more businesses get this? All you have to do is make me want to do business with you. The more repugnant you make the process, the less likely I am to play by your rules.
Why don't more businesses get this? All you have to do is make me want to do business with you. The more repugnant you make the process, the less likely I am to play by your rules. -I have no idea why they don't get it? It's amazing to me, it really is. When do business owners forget what it's like to be a consumer? Surely they buy things themselves, right? How can they possibly be so short sited? I think the answer stems from the construct of the modern corporation and the rewards system. It's a result of the "fiscal year" measuring stick. Most businesses are expected to show double digit growth year over year. When this doesn't happen, they get desperate and the next thing you know, you're 90 tracks goes to 50 so they can make their goals. This filters down to even the lowest level employees that make decisions to satisfy immediate goals rather than long term strategic "sustainable" growth. I've seen it many times in companies I've worked for. Times get tough and their quality/service go down and the next thing they know they're fucked. The smart businesses see tough times as opportunity. I know that all my competitors are going to tighten their belts, downgrade their product and cut staff and give horrible service, therefore I'm upping the product and investing in more people and better customer service. -They will grab HUGE marketshare and when the industry rebounds, they will sit alone. This could happen if one of the big players in the entertainment industry let go of the harness of the past and embraced the inevitable. -But no one will till it's too late.
Let me explain. I think most people get into business because they enjoy doing something or making something and they want to connect with people who will pay them to do that something or make that something. I think people join those companies - in an idealized frame of mind, mind you, not a "I need a paycheck" frame of mind - because they believe in that "something" and want to be a part of it. That's not what stock markets are about, though. Stock markets are about "here's an outfit that will make more money next year than this year and I want to get some of that money." There's a tea shop in Bellingham, WA that I would totally buy stock in. Not because I think they're going to make me rich but because they make awesome tea, they're really nice folks and I want to be a part of what they're doing. If they needed money and I had money I would give them money because I have a sense that they'd make it back and then some eventually and I really want them to succeed. I'm fairly dependent on their rooibos blends which means that's $200 a year worth of commerce I'd have to find elsewhere. That's my idea of "investment." At the same time, I have a friend who is an avid (and successful) day trader. We mix a certain large television show together and once, he lingered at craft service long enough that by the time he'd gotten back to his terminal to trade he'd lost six thousand dollars. He "invests" by watching the market price for some company or another and picking how best to profit off the difference between low prices and high prices - for weeks, days, hours or minutes. I've seen him make five thousand dollars in the amount of time it's taking me to write this post. And he often doesn't have the first clue as to the fundamentals of those companies, what they do, how they do it, their history, their future, none of it. They have his attention for a matter of minutes, hours or days because he just wants to ride their delta. That's his idea of "investment." Under my idea, companies like Ghostly are a good investment. Under his idea, companies like Apple are a good investment. And it's my firmly-held conviction that the two ideas are mutually incompatible. if you want to find the inflection point for when a good company became bad, an innovator became a stagnator, a leader became a follower, look to their IPO. This is where they went from chasing ideals to chasing profits. Not because they suddenly became greedy, but because they went from serving what they want to what "the shareholders" want. Shareholders are rational beings with zero involvement in your day-to-day process. Their only input is money, their only output is money. They aren't "fans" of your company - nobody owns Altria shares because they really love Marlboros. They're just there to ride that delta. And the way to increase that delta, for better or worse, is to extract as much cash as you humanly can from your customers.
At the very least, I'd like to see the market changed to where shares had to be held for four months. That starts to get closer to investing. But, even then, the stock market is ridiculous in the basic fact that inside knowledge is illegal. That almost makes it gambling by default. If you wanted to invest in the tea shop, you could chat with the owner. You could look at his books, and you could get the scoop on what he was planning to do next. Investing requires inside knowledge.
I can't add much to what you're saying because I tend to agree. I harbor no resentment towards your friend, I think he's smart for taking advantage of the system. I wish I did more. I have some friends that make a lot of money with "covered calls", I really don't know much about it but they're supposed to be "training" me on it. They claim it's free money. -That in itself should tell you how effed up the market is as a means of valuation.
Kickstarter, which theoretically should be awesome, is actually nothing more than a formalized instrument for panhandling from your friends. Don't get me started on kickstarter.
Just saying, it can be cool if it's done right. But I agree, it's more often than not horrible. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/timothymonger/timothy-mo...