Comments I’ve Made

Good start. I look forward to seeing how you progress. Just make sure you don’t get too personal and loose your way from the facts.

https://davidbrief2.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/counter-who-will-teach-te-reo-tomorrow-if-there-arent-those-of-us-who-can-speak-today/
MAY 9, 2015 AT 11:59 AM

Nicely written David. I was fairly neutral on this topic but your article as given me a reason to be interested in it and see how it could progress. Solid work.

Downloading Music (Samplers) Help Musicians Sell


MAY 9, 2015 AT 12:13 PM

Interesting topic. Even though I’m our topics are clashing I can see your point of view on a few matters. Particularly the idea of sampler tracks being released for free and then going out and buying the album. In theory this works well but the problem with society is they get used to having things a certain way, I mean look at how everyone reacts anytime a news program changes the graphic for the weather.  If you start giving songs out for free eventually people will start demanding the whole album. People need to realize that music does cost money and although artists make majority of their income from touring, album sales pay their labels and so forth so they can continue to make music. And if we start training artists to release free tracks they will either be garbage and no one will buy the album or the only good songs on an album and people won’t buy albums or singles for that matter because they’re free.

First Sub-Claim: Difference between Euthanasia and Murder.


MAY 9, 2015 AT 12:29 PM

As previously commented before this is a controversial topic and subject to argument. The difference to putting an animal down and euthanizing is an animal is a material object that we own and are responsible for. Animals are very intelligent and cognitive beings but not on the level like humans which is why they can be domesticated. And if we want that power over us given to another human being who makes decisions like this for us that is a whole other argument. Secondly, how will you determine if it is appropriate for a person to choose euthanasia? With the number of depressed people in the word you could just make it easy for them to legally kill themselves without considering the option of looking for help. Or an injured person who is depressed by there situation just choosing the easy way out. I can understand some peoples lives may be so incredibly difficult but to me euthanasia feels like an easy way out. How are you going to test against people who are mentally unwell and are making rash decisions on the matter of their life? As I said before do you want to give that power to somebody else?

The faster you go the bigger the mess


MAY 9, 2015 AT 12:52 PM

Interestingly put. Having grown up in a small town I am very familiar with stupid teenage drivers. I vividly remember most mondays from year 11 onwards hearing stories of classmates going out to the backroads with friends in their parents cars and driving at 150kph plus and laughing about how they almost killed themselves. So for the most part I agree with you on the raising of the driving age but I do have a few queries I wish to express. Firstly, the statistics of young drivers being involved with crashes, is there a possibility that it could simply scale to the next youngest age? Unfortunately crashing is a factor of driving and I’m not sure raising the age would guarantee the safety of these drivers. A point that could be made is stricter testing. Perhaps between licenses a person needs to complete a certain number of lessons from qualified instructors? Because personally having your license for 6-18 months and with parents of friends teaching you is not quite the safest and most through way to learn.Yes this would mean it costs more to get your license but the benefits would be worth it.

APA Referencing

Webpage
Peoples, G (2014, June 04) What’s the Value of 800 Million iTunes Accounts to Beats? Retrieved April 21 2015,
from http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/6106550/value-of-800-million-itunes-accounts-to-beats

Webpage No Author no dateITunes Website retrieved April 25 2015,
From https://www.apple.com/itunes/music

News Site
Donovan, N (2013, August 26) If CDs cost 8 Pounds where does the money go? Retrieved April 21 2015
from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23840744

Webpage
No Author, no date. For Students Doing Reports, Retrieved April 28 2015
from http://www.riaa.com/faq.php

News Site
Harmon, S (2015, April 16) No Taylor Swift, Streaming Isn’t Killing Music, Retrieved April 28 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-harmon/no-taylor-swift-streaming-isnt-killing-music_b_7074998.html

Why should the cost be lowered with increased downloads and streaming?

Now I get to the point where people start to poke holes in this argument. To keep profits up, labels need to increase their prices because more people are streaming and downloading music. This may be true. It is a lot easier to download Spotify and stream your favourite album and just put up with the ads. But if you want the songs offline, then you have to shell out $13.00 a month or go to some sketchy site and download it.

By lowering the cost, people can buy the highest quality and have access to it constantly where and whenever they like. No constant fee and paying for music you don’t like or won’t listen to in a million years. Now I’m not against Spotify by any means. It provides a valuable tool to the labels and consumers alike, and artists actually make money off the service according to the Time.

When people like Taylor Swift pull their music from Spotify only to be proven wrong by the Huffington Post, this makes her look a bit silly. Spotify shows labels where to send their artists on tour as stated in this ABC article. This has been the main source of income and I don’t know about you but I do love a good live show. It allows fans to discover new artists without shelling out that all too precious $20 for the cost of an album. Studies have shown that people are more inclined to buy songs as opposed to a subscription model, as written by Marketing Professor Raghuram Iyengar of Wharton University.

But as I briefly mentioned in my previous post, album sales are important to musicians. This isn’t difficult for big artists like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift who constantly sell albums but for smaller bands it is a lot more difficult. I personally was incredibly excited when a favourite band of mine was in the first position on the US billboard, a feat rarely achieved by alternative artists. By ranking in these standards, bands are traditionally opened up to more opportunities meaning more exposure. Unless you’re a grumpy hipster, more exposure is a good thing for your favourite band. More exposure means more fans and more tours and growth of the band. Personally, I think $15.00 is a fair price to support my favourite bands. How about you?

Cheaper = More Accessible = Less Illegal Downloads.

I

If something is cheap then people are going to buy it – simple. Previously shown, you can theoretically knock a quarter of the price off a digital album and everyone still receives a good chunk of money. This may entice people to stop illegally downloading albums due to the fact that they can have a quality product at a good price. Information provided by the Recording Industry Association of America says that album sales have dropped 47% between the years of 1999 to 2009.

More people buying albums will mean higher profits for labels even at the reduced cost. Album sales are important to artists, as a lot of their record deals hinge on the number of units they can sell. With albums being too expensive, it is a lot harder for newer artists to maintain label deals due to the lack of album sales. So by lowering the cost of albums it will be easier for artists to hold on to deals and have lasting careers.

Unfortunately, this should have been instigated a few years ago as now everyone just streams now because it’s free and good quality, but I digress.

Cost Cutting

How much is reasonable to lower the price of an album? I could say, “All albums must cost $5 because I said so.” However making and distributing albums has a certain cost. Working out how much less an album should cost digitally is key. Here, the cost of buying a cd is provided by the BBC showing roughly who gets what. Illustrating this as a graph  shows us what could be eliminated as far as selling an album digitally.

Intial price

The combined efforts of manufacturing (10%) and distribution (8%) can be removed. So a $20.00 album that would cost $16.40 sounds more appealing, but we improve upon this. Now we can’t take any off the tax but labels, retailers and artists may be in for a cut.

18 removed price

This graph (another graph to be inserted) with the removal of that 18%, shows that although the product costs less, everyone makes more money than they did before. Labels are now making $6.14 or 37.5% as opposed to their previous $6.00 or 30%.

final price

By rounding the dollars made by each party down, we can further lower the cost of an album. We can drop the cost of an album down to $15.30 – that is a decent 23.50% off the original price. Therefore no one is actually taking a pay cut from what they earn from a physical album, providing a fair but significantly lowered price on the album.

First post

Buying music is expensive. Cd’s are one of the only things in recent memory that have consistently been priced the same. At around the $20NZD mark in most stores, it should be significantly cheaper to buy an album digitally, but it isn’t. This is where services like Spotify and YouTube come in handy. You can listen to your favourite album or song anytime you like, as long as you have an internet connection.

But that’s traditionally not what most artists and labels want. There are some that understand streaming and online interaction is important. So, lets play devils advocate and look at those who don’t. They want record sales because an album isn’t successful if it’s good, it’s successful if everybody has it. And with illegal downloads and streaming people aren’t as interested in buying music when they can have it for free.

Here I will tell you why iTunes should lower the price of an album through their service, compared to going to a store and buying it. Before anyone says “Going to *insert competing service here* is already cheaper” I’m using iTunes because according to an article on Billboard, as of June 2014 iTunes had over 800 million accounts and 43 million songs attached to it.

Filter Blog Plan

My filter blog will be looking at why iTunes should lower the prices of the albums they sell through their service in comparison to a physical disc at a record store.

Main points will include:

  • Cost reductions through distribution (printing, shipping, store sales)
  • More accessibility
  • Less illegal downloads

Counter point.

  • Why should the cost be lowered with increased downloads and streaming?

Digital albums Should be cheaper than physical albums links

1 Steam game example vs. physical 

2 is Google playing hardball with indie artists

streaming is killing album sales

4 spotify royalties 

5 kindle price of popular book vs. physical price 

Netflix’s strengths and weaknesses 

pros and cons of steam

The endless debate: digital vs. physical

Music industry disunited over costs and benefits of online music streaming services

10 time and cost of making an album: case study nirvana

11 How long is this goanna take: Time and cost of making an album

12 album release costs 

13 Do I need physical Music releases

14 Distribution 

15 LA Weekly: How much does it cost to make a song

16 Alt press: true cost of recording

17 BBC: where does the money go

18 streaming isn’t killing music

19 The algebra of iTunes

20 RIAA FAQ

21 Wharton University marketing costs of music

22 All Time Low Sell 75,00 albums first week