Online piracy has been for long a nuisance to the music industry. Much publicised battles have been fought on the web and in the courts, but with limited success. What escapes the attention of the media is the deluge of offline MP3s. The large scale proliferation of home PCs and dirt-cheap MP3 players have only magnified the malice. A little bargaining can get you a CD loaded with 150 ‘superhit’ songs for Rs. 20 (45 cents). The sidewalks of the metros and the mofussil towns are stacked with the stuff. Neighbourhood rental shops also rent them out – Rs. 10 only. Downloading the equivalent from the net would have cost many times more. Purchasing the original CDs – forget it.
The quality might not be great, but it is more than worth the price paid. The customer is happy. He no longer has to empty his wallet or inflate his credit card bills at the cash counters of music stores.
The music industry does not seem to have learnt its lesson. They are concentrating only on the ethical and legal aspects. Their anti-piracy blitzkrieg is limited to an ad here and a raid there. After a few days of lull the pirates are again back to business. What they should have realised is that the advantage the pirates have is in the price. Low priced original movie DVDs and VCDs have dented the pirates’ market-share. Its now the turn of the music industry to go for competitive (read pirate unfriendly) and consumer friendly pricing.
One fact that I fail to comprehend. A CD costs less to produce than an audio cassette. Then why does the same music on a CD cost at least three times than that on an audio cassette?
very well written….I agree with you… one or two raids cant curb the piracy…
An audio cassette costs less to produce than a CD. Then why does the same music on a CD cost at least three times than that on an audio cassette?shouldn’t that be a cd costs less to produce than an audio cassettee, so the price of the cd should be less. Isn’t that what the logic should have been?
Thank you my anonymous editor. And I have to give up the habit of posting the first drafts. The error has been rectified.
Just landed while hitting *next blog* …Nice. 🙂
well, when they make the cds so costly;it’s better to get pirated ones. but for mp3 and vcds only. for music cds i still like getting the original one.(when ur sis is spending the money, the cost doesn’t matter much!!!!!!!)
Fix typo in the last para plz.For a chief copy editor, even a minor neglect is unpardonable.Regards,-Wellwisher
It is already nerve wrecking to find and fix others’ errors. Thankfully I don’t have to fix mine. My well wishers on the world wide web do the job for me. Thanks for keeping me on my toes. And brickbats need not always be anonymous. I’m really flattered that people actually READ my post to that minutest detail.Thanks again.