Piracy and Prices Here's an interesting snippet from DICE, a games conference in the US. Valve are responsible for the PC/PS/Xbox hits Half-life and Half-life 2. They run the Steam network (similar to iTunes for games). Valve released a game called Left 4 Dead recently, (a zombie shoot em up). Over a weekend in February, Valve cut the price of the game in half. This resulted in a 3000% increase in sales. The sales from that weekend alone added up to more than the weekend the game was originally released. Other companies selling games on Steam experimented with similar price cuts. Valve found the following cuts would boost sales in the games in the following amounts: * 10% sale = 35% increase in sales (real dollars, not units shipped) * 25% sale = 245% increase in sales * 50% sale = 320% increase in sales * 75% sale = 1470% increase in sales Makes you wonder how many more albums the music companies would shift if they tried this approach.... A lot of people have always argued that if music was cheaper they'd buy more of it. Does this lend any weight to the argument? Discuss
they need to sort something out with the music side of things, but its much better than it was. i'm buying loads more music than i was 5 years ago. the price decrease and offers really help i think i know where to get it all for free but supporting the artists is much more important to me now. sure the internet is great for getting free music, and now its really easy for anyone to put out their own tracks, but now theres 100 times more shit to sift through every week. i've seen me go through 600 tracks in a day and have less than 10 that i would keep/play out of them - and by keep i mean if it was in hmv i would pay money for it i think im using piracy as a listening booth nowadays (with intent to buy if i like something) instead of the smash and grab it was a few years ago
All the stuff i pirate gets used a small number of times ... i only download albums for free and divx movies which usually get replaced by pukka dvd's once you can pick them up for 3 quid - If i enjoy something, then i usually want to get something of good quality to watch again and again etc etc. With games, they are the easiest things to pirate, but i play on my PS3 the most and every game HAS to be bought properly and at full price, and cos of that i make sure i get more than my moneys worth out of it. Lastly, all the music i buy for dj'ing at home is 99.9% legit, since there are now places its easy and fast to preview, buy and download very high quality bitrate tracks at good prices ..... Before beatport and all the other sites were around, the quality was dire from pirate copies. The big music companies arent getting any of my money - Well, not easily since im sure a number of big dj's and producers these days are backed by some of the big names either through their labels or supporting their tours.
originals would sell loads more if better priced, i love a nice box and some instructions its all part of the expo
nice input rob. anyway. i can't imagine the difference in sales would be as drastic as the one's seen within valve. i think the reason why the sales went vertical after the price drop are because steam games are a massive fuck on to crack. with music still being far to easy to find and download i dont think the effect will be as huge. i can't see anyone wanting to pay for music after they've been easily getting music for free and getting away with it for so long. why would anyone want to step back? The industry has to change along with the times IMO. artists coming into the industry now can't get annoyed at the lack of money they're making simply because they've probably downloaded music for free themselves. and might have to work harder for a change.
Artists can fuck off in my opinion. Well, more specifically, the ones who think that they can have a hit song written for them (or co-written) and then retire on the proceeds of a weeks work recording it. People in the 'real world' can slag off DJ's all they want (I no longer try to justify it to 'band' types) but some of the producer/dj types at the middle tier of the 'scene' work their arse off for not a massive amount of money in terms of the travelling and pittance they earn from their music. The internet is the saviour of music, but not for the 'industry'.... ha ha ha
I always bought original cd's but in the last 4-5 years ive only bought about 3. I just dont see the point, I never play all of my old cd's. I listen to music through my computer and its easier having them all in files. I still buy DVD's now and again but I dont pay more than about 6quid for one. I just get old classics and stuff from me childhood.
I didnt realise it actually needed saving. And you'd be suprised how many producer/djs pay other producers a hefty sum to create tracks for them so they can get a bit of exposure.
