[BC] Arrested for just telling people where to find copyrighted material

[SteveOrdinetz]

  Robert Orban wrote:

>>  I still listen to a lot of current music.  No, not rap
>>or hip-hop, but other current music, and I don't mind paying $12 for
>>a disk of music -- much.  Eighteen Dollars is just TOO MUCH, and I
>>believe the major reason the brick and mortar stores are fading
>>away.
>
>I remember the average pop LP selling for somewhere around  $3 to $4 
>in 1960. This is about $20 to $27 in 2007 dollars. So music 
>prices  in real dollars have actually declined, especially when you 
>take into account the fact that the average 1960 pop LP had 30 
>minutes of music, and many CDs have more.


It's more psychological than anything.  Gasoline is cheaper today in 
real dollars than it was 40 years ago, but people don't think that 
way.  They just see sticker shock.

Part of the problem for the record companies is that today's music 
listeners/potential buyers think "songs", not albums, which is 
exactly what the labels were trying to get away from.  And it's not 
entirely the labels' fault...sales of 45s declined sharply almost to 
the point of insignificance thru the 70s and into the 80s, CD and 
cassette singles never really caught on.  I think the labels got 
blindsided by the whole Napster phenomenon, and resisted altering 
their business plan hoping the whole thing would just go away.  I'm 
no fan of the record companies, but they got caught up in a culture 
change that turned their whole business model upside down.