11.29.11 Demo leaks, tour buzz rumors, more news

I'm not much older than your generation and I personally think it's a total cop-out to say it's "just what we do" when it comes to illegal downloading. When I was a teen shoplifting was all the rage.... no harm no foul teens said, stores can afford it....etc. it was stealing plain and simple. and so is illegal downloading.

and there are negative consequences, look at the music industry today. it's in the shitter because of illegal downloading. Music is selling a fraction of what it did just five years ago. That costs people their jobs, their futures, their dreams.

also, if you wouldn't download Adam's songs for free, why would you do it to other artists? Adam isn't any better or different just because you happen to stan him IMO.



sadly you're right. People have become desensitized to illegal downloading. They don't see it as a crime but it is. I wish they would crack down.



I think the music industry would love to stop illegal downloading. The model of tour/merch was always in place as a means for the ARTIST to make money. They never made much off the sale of albums. that was the record companies money for the most part. Now it's become necessary for the labels to dip into the touring to make back their money on the artists because even though albums aren't selling they still cost the same or more to produce and distribute. They don't get recorded, pressed and shipped for free.

It is all just an opinion and it's cool to see varying ones but the fact is illegal downloading is no different than if you went to walmart and stuck a CD in your purse and walked out without paying for it.

P.S. I'd love to see Adam perform with Queen at the Olympics. that's be awesome

sugaree, you raised an interesting point about used books. The sale of used books is actually protected by copyright law, which aims to balance the rights of "content creators" with the dissemination of information. There is a "first sale" doctrine which entitles the creator to royalties only for the first sale of each physical copy. After that, the owner of that copy can dispose of it freely.

This has no impact on the content of the book, just its physical manifestation. It doesn't mean you can scan the book and put it on the Internet without permission. It just means you can sell your one copy, or give it to Uncle Ned. The music industry fought "First Sale" for years. Some may remember Garth Brooks crusading against it.

evergreen, I agree that I would have bought a download of the Queen performance in a minute! I really don't understand what's so hard about it. There is a mint of money being left on the table by not taking advantage of the technology. Imagine what you could do. For example, if Adam had a concert photographer, he could sell downloads of photos from every concert. That way, you could get great photos of YOUR concert, and get them put on everything from t-shirts to coffee mugs to calendars. It would be so easy to do these days.

I don't think ANYONE said that just because it's what people do makes it RIGHT. Of course it doesn't. Duh. Unfortunately illegal downloading HAS become the norm whether you like it or not or whether it's ethical or not. It just has. To state that is not a cop out, it's simply a FACT. The pandora's box has been opened and cannot be closed again imo. Understanding that reality does not mean we don't realize that it's not an ethical thing to do.

Fear no more, help is at hand! Yes--It actually exists explicitly for your kindle! ;D

smellofbooks.com/

LOL reminds me of the ridiculous "page turning" sound some of these book-apps make, like that's what you're missing...

As a (wannabe) writer, I totally share in the worry of the "content providers." I had to move on from my last steady writing gig--restaurant reviewing--because so many people were providing theoretically competitive content online for free that my editors had to switch to essentially volunteer labor.

And Amazon has totally killed the industry--first used book stores, and now the big box bookstores, too. Frankly, I'm all for the rise of the Kindle--it's the last hope of the book industry, as far as I can tell! Even highly successful authors with six-figure advances are doing pitifully judging by the standards of people with corresponding degrees of fame/success in other fields, say TV. Think about it: a book takes years to write--lets say it gets bought for $200,000 (a truly extravagant sum by most publishing standards)--split that over 4 years, give at least 15% to the agent, use some of what's left to cover expenses such as research and promotion, subtract the benefits the come with most salaried jobs, and you've got a pretty piddling amount left to play with. And because it generally comes in a lump sum it's taxed at a higher rate, too. Not a very good deal. And that's the extraordinary success story we're talking about.
Similar deal in the music industry--Nonotme's list makes a whole lot of sense. You can be pretty damn well known and pretty damn successful and still need to tour like mad to get by.

ETA: other topic, but illegality on its own has close to no impact on an action's moral worth, as far as I'm concerned. I don't have nearly enough respect for our so-called legal system (cough gay-marriage cough) for that to carry any real weight with me. Which isn't to say that it's a totally innocent thing to do--I don't think it is--but I still don't see why it's any worse than mix-tapes, watching you-tubes, sharing a CD, or, as someone mentioned earlier, re-gifting a read book. We all have our little economies, and most of them are at least somewhat sensible. Plus, like a couple of people have pointed out, there are also up-sides for the artist. Not a proponent, but we're all little criminals in one way or another