mp3s are killing the record industry

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The big losers are the independents who are not generally availabe in every
> record store or supermarket. Here it is to much trouble finding and ordering a
> record compared to just downloading it (and make some greedy filsharingservice
> owner happy).
where are the studies & facts to back that claim up?...in fact it was
independent labels who first embraced file sharing and the mp3 as a
promotional tool...

> I dont know if all independents are saying this but I have heard it from
> several. They are being hurt. For real. Microsound is probably to small a
> niche or is Fennesz, Cascone & Co. also available on Kazaa??
dunno, but I'm making the same amount of money per CD sold that I was 10
years ago...artists usually don't get a cost of living raise...besides,
microsound is a collectors genre...artists put a lot of time and effort into
the packaging and artwork so it becomes about the form as much as the
content...there isn't the same type of devaluation in that genre as there is
in electronica and pop...

> Just now there was another newsitem on the radio about the decline in record
> sales (which may have just as much to do with the declining economy as with
> piracy) but the inteviews in the record stores all went: "No, I am not against
> downloading and I and all my friends can copy CD:s but I just couldnt find
> this record online so I had to buy it..."
yup you can spin anything...needless to say I am skeptical about mp3's
killing the music industry... 

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