Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Do you pay for your music?
this questions seems to make people get defensive and start to find ways to avoid having to explain why they do not pay for music. yes, i also believe that cds are sold too expensive, but single songs aren't. concluding that the money goes to the industry instead of the artist is like saying that the money for a building design project goes to the firm and not the architect. the very reason someone decides to work for a company, is proof that he needs the company, that there is something he is unable to provide or receive if he went independent.
parallel to this question, is its counterpart,
Do you pay for your software?
some people see this as the same question, but it is essentially different, just as one's decision to buy a refrigerator and to buy a PDA is totally different. not just because these are essentially different products, but the music industry and the software industry work differently.
software has GPL, which has worked thus far, but in a commercial society, people who believe that software should be free are able to make parallels of commercial software and be sure that they will meet real-world needs, but music unfortunately works differently. music, unlike software, is a designer product and not a commodity. no matter how much one believes in free music, making parallels of commercial music will end him up as a copycat. this is because people see the style in music, people believe that a certain music, belongs to a certain person. programming actually works the same - the quality and style of code, can actually be attributed to specific programmers, just as books to writers, but this is not something the common-man can understand.
coming back to music, let's put the question differently.
Do you think the artist would want you to pay for his CD?
yes, most of the money goes no the industry. but cd sales gives the artist power in the industry. it gives him bargaining power so he can get more money to pay for his next jaguar and his girlfriends' Louis Vuittons. just like the company gets most of the money you make for the company, but you still want the company to make as much as it is able to. and whether or not your company is paying you enough, is a different issue altogether.
this questions seems to make people get defensive and start to find ways to avoid having to explain why they do not pay for music. yes, i also believe that cds are sold too expensive, but single songs aren't. concluding that the money goes to the industry instead of the artist is like saying that the money for a building design project goes to the firm and not the architect. the very reason someone decides to work for a company, is proof that he needs the company, that there is something he is unable to provide or receive if he went independent.
parallel to this question, is its counterpart,
Do you pay for your software?
some people see this as the same question, but it is essentially different, just as one's decision to buy a refrigerator and to buy a PDA is totally different. not just because these are essentially different products, but the music industry and the software industry work differently.
software has GPL, which has worked thus far, but in a commercial society, people who believe that software should be free are able to make parallels of commercial software and be sure that they will meet real-world needs, but music unfortunately works differently. music, unlike software, is a designer product and not a commodity. no matter how much one believes in free music, making parallels of commercial music will end him up as a copycat. this is because people see the style in music, people believe that a certain music, belongs to a certain person. programming actually works the same - the quality and style of code, can actually be attributed to specific programmers, just as books to writers, but this is not something the common-man can understand.
coming back to music, let's put the question differently.
Do you think the artist would want you to pay for his CD?
yes, most of the money goes no the industry. but cd sales gives the artist power in the industry. it gives him bargaining power so he can get more money to pay for his next jaguar and his girlfriends' Louis Vuittons. just like the company gets most of the money you make for the company, but you still want the company to make as much as it is able to. and whether or not your company is paying you enough, is a different issue altogether.
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