| Do you love India Arie? Do you love Bob Marley? Do you love songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" or albums like U2's "Joshua Tree"? Wouldn't it be a shame if these artists and their work were only known by small pockets of fans rather than millions? |
Good/Not Good
Many fans that insist illegal downloading is "good" for the music industry also recognize that recording industry revenues are down. But, they argue performance royalties are up (royalties from radio, TV and other such performances) and they are just all Lady Ga Ga over touring revenues (which assuredly are up). See what we mean here.
They miss the forest for the trees. It's the classic case of cherry-picking statistics to make your case. The back bone, the life-blood of the music industry is recorded music. Record companies don't generally share in performance royalties nor tour revenue (though they are trying—more on that in a minute).
It Takes Big Money to Create A "Legend"
If the record companies go broke, there's nobody to invest the millions that creates the blockbuster songs and artists. So, what do you think happens in a generation once the Stones and Madonna and the Eagles and the "Boss" and U2 and all of the other mega-stars created by the major labels die off and are forgotten? Do you think those half-billion dollar tours will still happen when the music business splinters into a million little bands in a million little micro markets with their little core group of internet social networkers who mostly consume their recorded music for free?
The Legends Die
It's obvious: the tours don't happen and performance royalties start to die off as the legends die off. With no industry to create new legends—it's turn out the lights time (see the big red graph on our Home page if you are still not getting the picture).
The "360º" Deals Will Eventually Die Too
So, no wonder the labels want in on the performance royalties and especially the tour revenue. Ergo, the "360º" deal. It's funny (and sad) though that the labels haven't really been the big players in these deals. The market has been sort of cornered by companies like Live Nation. Fact is, the labels are too broke to foot the bill for these mega deals. What these deals in fact are is prima facie evidence that the label model that has existed for decades has been broken. Whether they want to accept it or not, what broke it is illegal file downloading. But, they (the 360º deals) will die out too when there are no legends to sign. That's when the party's pretty much over if all of this music theft keeps up.
Kiss Says Kiss This
Illicit downloading is one reason the band had resisted recording new material for a decade.1
Conclusion
Illegal file sharing is killing the music you love. It's a slow descent, so slow that perhaps the average fan doesn't see, but those losing their jobs in the industry see it clearly and all will one day. Click here to see the full extent of it or go up to the "Fans" menu under the "Start" button above and work your way through the rest of the pages we have created for you on this site.
