Limp Bizkit And Other Bands example essay topic

... ic industry. No one is there to actually help you; all they want it to get their share. For a first time release of an album an artist may receive 25 cents per CD sold. That is twenty-five cents from a record that the consumer just paid $17.89 for. To break even on the starting album for a band has become virtually impossible, this is I have decided to follow in the footstep of my personal mentor. Bands such as The Dave Matthews Band are well known for their acceptance of file sharing.

This is how the band became popular. They allow taping at their concerts, and are one of the largest "bootleg" bands around. A quote from Dave on VH 1's Behind the Music states, "Kids would come up to me and ask if they could tape my shows, I didn't care I was just happy they wanted to listen to my music. Before I knew it, people were singing the words to our songs in crowds at towns that we had never been to before. What more could you ask for?" Dave Matthews' album sales are not that spectacular, but every year that they come to the UMB bank Pavilion, they are sold out. Bands such as this appreciate a die-hard fan's desire or a greater feeling of allegiance by owning rare versions of their work.

This is the beauty of the internet. It is free publicity. Instead of having to spend thousands on promotion tapes and countless hours posting flyers; a website can go up and be much more effective. Unfortunately, there is no way to produce evidence that people are listening to my music and my demos that I send to record companies are getting dumped in the stacks of the thousands of others bands who will never get listened too. If they had had a figure of how many people had downloaded my songs off of the Internet, then I may have been able to present myself more convincingly. The Internet can serve as a sounding board for young musicians.

They can put a song out and monitor its success, and with that information make revisions. This is a simple idea for record companies to employee instead of fighting to the last solider to prevent the downloading itself. One artist who has conformed and has found success is Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. As lead singer of the band Durst has embraced file sharing. 'We believe that the Internet and Napster should not be ignored by the music industry as tools to promote awareness for bands and [to] market music,' states Durst.

Napster sponsored a free tour in which Limp Bizkit and other bands played venues with no admission charge. The fans loved it, and as a result Limp Bizkit's record sales have been phenomenal. The band clearly did not lose any sales due to music downloading. They turned the situation into a way they could appeal to their fans even more. It was an extremely savvy business maneuver. In regard to other artist opposition to file swapping durst says, 'We could care less about the older generation's need to keep doing business as usual, we care more about what our fans want and our fans want music on the internet.

' One last example of a band that is in support of people to people music sharing is a band called The Offspring. On their website, the Offspring says 'MP 3 technology and programs such as Napster... [are] a vital and necessary means to promote music and foster better relationships with our fans. ' (Gibney 3). Interestingly enough, the Offspring's last album, Americana, was made available online illegally before being commercially released, yet it is the band's best-selling album to date (Gibney 3). There are many examples like this that are left out when the argument of file sharing is brought about.

In our capitalist society everything has been based off of what the producer of a product can get the consumer to pay. As long as there is no competition the price can stay at what the company mandates. The general way that a product works is it is expensive when released and then it comes down in price as the technology to make that product becomes more readily available. In the case of compact disc the price has stayed high and keeps climbing. Teenagers are not highly paid to run cash registers or wash dishes, and thus cannot afford to buy music at such a high cost.

A person getting paid minimum wage would have to work for three hours in order to be able to buy a single CD, and often times they do not like the entire disc. It is only common sense to see why so many kids are compelled to perform the illegal activity. There are ways for the record companies to increase compact disc sales. The extras the consumers receive when they purchase commercial CDs also encourages people to spend a little extra money. Artwork, lyrics, pictures and other information make the purchase of a CD more valuable than just the music.

New advancements such as multimedia components for computers, including video footage, photos, and games would encourage the purchase of a CD if included on more of them. A release with better extras and a reduced price are more likely to entice people into purchasing them as well. Other routes of trying to lessen the "Impact" that artist are incurring have been suggested. One such route is the possible taxation of the sale of blank CD's which are sold at the retail stores.

All of the music that is downloaded will have to be either listened to on the computer or transferred to a CD. If there is a surcharge for royalties on the blank CD's, some of the lost revenue will be recovered. Though this "End of the world scenario", that the industries are throwing out at us may sound new and disturbing, this is actually almost exactly the same as something that happened back in the mid 80's. The 1984 case of Universal Studios Inc. and Walt Disney Co. vs. Sony and their Betamax VCR was brought up in front of the Supreme Court.

A similar argument of widespread copying of movies and TV shows seemed to threaten downfall to the entire industry. The court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of Sony and the VCR was allowed to be released. Soon the prominent industry of video sales and rental came to light. Not only did a movie make money on its release into theaters, a whole new commercial aspect opened up when it was time for video release. Now the idea of the a VCR being any kind of nuisance, besides having to figure out how to program it, is absurd. A generation not wanting to fight the demons of the world with guns has come up with new ideas.

Less violent and more eye opening since the damage is not in lives but in dollars. Since Shawn Fanning invented Napster in his dorm room at Northeastern in 1999, and started sharing it with classmates and friends around the area, the face of the music industry has changed and will continue to change. It is very possible that a victory for the proverbial "Little guy", is going to be what comes in the end. As I have supported the idea of free downloading, I would like to raise a warning. Those who do not support the idea of free information still have the ability to access the same files as we do.

In this, there is no way to tell if a file is clean; thus, use caution when downloading. Only download from someone or some place that you trust. After saying that, there are many wonderful bands out there waiting to be discovered, support local and small bands.

Bibliography

Gibney, Frank. "Napster Meister". Time Magazine Online. 13 Nov. 2000 Time Magazine.
Dec. 2000 Healey, Jon.
Napster could be friend and foe to recording industry". Knight-Ridder / Tribune Service. 11 Jun. 2003: K 927.
Moore, Booth. "Court Decision Left Out the Key Players: Meet Generation Napster". Los Angeles Times. July 28, 2000".
MP 3 Music: What it Is and How to Use It". web Donald S. "All You Need to Know About the Music Buisness". New York, NY. Free Press. 2003 pg 127-130 Templeton, Brad.
10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained". web (26 Nov. 2000).
Wagner, Sean p... (2004, November 26).
Interview with Steven Winslow]. Wardell, Jane. "Music Industry Launches piracy Lawsuits". International News. October 7, 2004.
Werden, Gregory J. "Lost Profits from Patent Infringement: The Stimulation Approach". International Journal of the Economics of Business 7.2 (7/2004).