Comments on: Chuck Klosterman Gets It: People Are Broke, Illegal Downloading Is Easy

By: routage d emailing

routage d emailing — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:32:16 +0000

Você é uma pessoa muito inteligente!

By: HUGE_Hefner

HUGE_Hefner — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:49:51 +0000

I just had to come back here to clarify.

I don´t think the price of CDs is the only reason for the debacle of the music industry, there are a variety of factors, most of them already mentioned by you all. We can even include the credit card debt as one, just to humor Klosterman.

But the specific point I want to make is this: nowdays recording an album is a lot cheaper that in the old days. The same can be said about promotion, distribution, production of the CDs, the finding of new acts (via My Space instead of going to clubs) and almost everything the music industry does.

So why are the CDs so expensive?

An Idolator post about Chinese Democracy said it has a 15 million dollar price tag, and that guy Micco pointed out that´s what Hollywood spends in a 3 second scene with Nicolas Cage. And that's true. And the DVD of that movie costs two dollars more than the soundtrack, and it includes all kinds of bonus material. It's ridiculous.

A song for 99cents in ITunes is completely outrageous.

Music has to be cheaper in order to compete.

By: Nedpoleon

Nedpoleon — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:14:19 +0000

Nobody tell Cory Doctorow.

By: katekate is squared

katekate is squared — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:51:31 +0000

Part of the reason I don’t buy CDs anymore is because I don’t have any place for them. I already have too many, and if I can get an album for $9.99 on iTunes instead of $15.99 in the record store, I’m gonna do it. This just reinforces my original notion that Chuck Klosterman is kind of oblivious to modern culture.

By: HUGE_Hefner

HUGE_Hefner — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:52:13 +0000

I usually enjoy Klosterman, but the theory about the credit card debt is kind of ridiculous. The not-spending-money-in-something-you-can-get-for-free works, but we already knew that.

Also, pirating videogames is not that hard. And DVDs are almost as easy as CDs, are they not?

Other industries have to deal with piracy everyday too, but their products have a more appropriate price.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:14:13 +0000

Has anyone considered the possibility that people are actually listening to less music, because there are so many other things to do to keep yourself entertained (like watch YouTube videos, surf the net, IM your friends, watch Netflix movies etc)?

By the way, I'm doing a survey on digital music for a class at MIT. I'm giving $5 free credit on Amie Street to anyone who fills it. Check it out at: [www.surveymonkey.com]

By: Rabi

Rabi — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:13:55 +0000

"my specific theory is this: A lot of the money not spent on music in the twenty-first century is being used to pay off credit-card debt that was incurred during the nineties."

Once again Klosterman draws from his well, 1990's pop culture, to write about a 21st Century issue. What's going to happen in 2050? Will the climate crisis be connected to Season 2 of "The Real World"?

By: scott pgwp

scott pgwp — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:23:11 +0000

I'm not seeing the genius of Klosterman here. People fileshare because it's an "easy way to eliminate an extranneous cost" - yeah, no shit!

He goes on to make possibly the most ludicrous, boneheaded leap in logic I've seen in print in a long time with this whole line of thought on credit card debt. Kids are actually being totally level-headed and are responsibly paying down their credit card debt while reigning in their discretionary spending! Okay, thanks for the evidence on that. "I looked at one graph, then I looked at another one, and decided since they were both pie-shaped they must be related!"

Freakonomics this ain't. Ugh - it's maddeningly idiotic!

By: Chris N.

Chris N. — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:16:28 +0000

Personally, a lot of money I would have spent on music now goes to DVDs -- including, I would note, a lot of music DVDs.

As a for-instance, I got the Police's greatest-hits DVD, featuring all the songs in surround sound, for less than the equivalent CD would have cost. Why would I want it in stereo, without the pictures and extras?

By: Lax Danja House

Lax Danja House — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:57:21 +0000

The credit card bit is going a bit far, but the basic point that not buying music is an easy way to skimp on discretionary spending is spot on in my opinion.